Guilford: the worst?

You can have all the diplomas, degrees and papers you want when it comes to business, but unless you have common sense, all you can do is wipe your ass with them. You can't just buy common sense on a good day at Wall Street. Who's got more heads on the unemployment line right now? Those with impressive paperwork or those in the trenches? Pretty even I think.

Personally, I've never worked on a railroad and never will. I like to be home at the end of every day, and being on call one in every five weeks is bad enough. On the other hand, I have been railfanning long enough to be able to compare systems and carriers in my time. With that, Pan am/Guilford/Name of the Week seems to stand out as one of the least liked service oriented in the past generation. This is coming from each side of the fence, being employees and non. They've always had reputations for poor moral and terrible track maintenance. Many people I've been able to meet along the system have come and gone. Never on any other line have I heard crews come down on their own system as often and as hard. How about seeing a well known engineer of many years wearing a CSX vest while he's working Waterville? Hilarious but kind of sad all at once. Imagine being the track crews who are allowed to do just enough to keep the trains upright, never mind actually on the rails! For a road it's size, Pan Am really shouldn't have as many mishaps as they do. Seems like most large rail projects are funded by another that has to be involved......Amtrak on the Downeaster sections, Norfolk Southern in PAS territory, New Brunswick Southern in District 1......

Now, any of you can bash me or others like me who aren't actually in the railroading family. We don't care either. This thread seemed to be aimed at getting opinions on the road as a whole in the line of history and its record. So while others want to butt heads on who has the most expertise, I'd like to hear more opinions on the matter.

I am just a spectator, don't shoot. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, does anyone have any pics of the mainline track conditions on the northern end of the system (i.e. the section Pan Am and only Pan Am is responsible for)?

Sure. I'll do even better: video!

http://youtu.be/eeQRMpG4ANE?t=8m14s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Pics and articles, too:

http://mainecampus.com/2011/04/13/frenc ... mps-track/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://bangordailynews.com/2012/08/06/ ... crossings/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/07/n ... nse-plans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/28/n ... relatedBox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/22/b ... -in-maine/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/07/29/n ... relatedBox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/04/12/n ... relatedBox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MEC407 you're the best. It is that Maine wind rocking those cars in the video, right?

Nah, must be the breeze from a Pan Am Jet Clipper taking off nearby.

KEN PATRICK wrote: i call to your attention stb railroad cost proceedings ep772, ep664 and nor 42121. there are many others . revenue adequacy is prime. hence my assertion that guilford's pricing is counter-productive to fiscal health. i really appreciate your thinking that crews and power are over-arching. not so. again, i feel comfortable is opining that most posters herein do not contemplate the larger concept of totality. i'm sure guilford's pricing methodology does not consider marginal attributes. if so, we would see significant increases in railcar volumes.

So, KEN, how are you going to handle these significant increases in railcar volume: new power, new people, new track, by chance? With business that you'd be adding on the margin? On a system that is far from revenue adequate before you add this priced-on-the-margin business and with the risk of cannabalizing existing traffic that's already paying its way? With traffic that just happens to be sitting out there for the picking? Despite a relatively weak negotiating position visa vi other carriers and likely in the role as the overhead or terminating carrier? I don't think so.

MEC407 wrote:Sure. I'll do even better: video!

Pics and articles, too:

I wonder how P&W, VRS, or NECR track would look if it wasn't for taxpayer support or more recent access to deep pockets? Probably not much different.

Perhaps you folks should check out the latest ANR&P for comments by Fink about the transition from the old regime to the new. Interesting stuff no doubt.

I wish I could, but I can't afford to spend $115 a year for an e-newsletter...

QB 52.32 wrote:I wonder how P&W, VRS, or NECR track would look if it wasn't for taxpayer support or more recent access to deep pockets? Probably not much different.

Fair point, but one could also draw comparison to SLR and NHN, neither of which have passenger service, but both of which maintain their lines to a much higher standard than PAR's non-passenger/non-subsidized lines.

While property sales have slowed in recent years for a number of reasons, such
as much less inventory, sites with haz-mat issues, etc., Guilford did sell lots of
property over the years, including most of the MEC Mountain Division, the far
end of the Hillsboro Branch, the Farmington Branch, Conway Branch, Rockland
Branch and others. Also, many individual parcels and some structures were
sold. While no detailed information is available on most of these sales, it would
be reasonable to assume (be careful about assumming) that a major portion of
the proceeds from these sales did offset the costs of buying the B&M and MEC.

If that was the case, then it could be argued that GRS got the property for little
or nothing. GRS/PAR has put relatively little investment into maintaining main
line trackage, other than that paid for by someone else. Even where track
upgrades have been paid for by someone else, GRS/PAR has not been willing to
do reasonable maintenance to keep the track at the level paid for by others, as
was so very evident in the last few days between Portland and Plaistow with much
of the main line back to 10 and 25 MPH that was the situation back in 1999.

Even with more line sales, the Conn River line and the Adams branch, in the wind,
it appears that PAR will just limp along for the forseeable future.

MEC407 wrote:

QB 52.32 wrote:I wonder how P&W, VRS, or NECR track would look if it wasn't for taxpayer support or more recent access to deep pockets? Probably not much different.

Fair point, but one could also draw comparison to SLR and NHN, neither of which have passenger service, but both of which maintain their lines to a much higher standard than PAR's non-passenger/non-subsidized lines.

Both of your examples come from the benefits of deep pockets, not standing on their own like GRS and its predecessors. NHN owned by its shipper and SLR coming from the CN system. Same case will be made for the Erving-owned properties moving forward no doubt.

You said "access to deep pockets." You don't think that Timothy Mellon has deep pockets, or at least access to deep pockets? (Mellon Bank, et al.)

QB52 some macros. all us railroads

in the 0 to 5 million cars fixed costs per car go from $600 to $300. operating costs $1600 to $250. at 15 million, operating costs are $150.

train operating costs per car at 0-5 million are $60. at 20 mil $120. fortunately for those of us who argue that railroad pricing is the culprit in losing new business, railroad financials are studied by many as an offset to monopolistic pricing practices. still, many cases go to stb. it's instructiver to read csxt's responses on their off-the-wall plastics pricing. it's hard to argue against greed.
i'm certain you believe your knowledge of railroad operations supports what, as i maintain, really dumb pricing. it's not crews and power, its 'what the traffic will bear' thinking that kills new volumes.
if only railroads hired mba's to do pricing. or me. ken patrick

I have an MBA and I can tell you that railroads most certainly would love to. But most MBAs don't flock to railroads... Also, I think Fink may have an MBA..