How to Fix CSX...

I'm attempting to do a map of a "profitable" CSX. And no, I'm not saying that they're PC, but I'm wondering, If CSX was to slim down ICG style, with only the most profitable core routes left, what would their system map look like? I'm assuming lines like the water level route, the ex.Chessie routes in VA and WV, and the Florida lines would be kept, but I'm sure some of the lines could be spun off.(Hypothetically)

The lines that I envision would be the ones that contribute to the bottom line. If CSX slimmed down and improved operations, they could really be a force to be feared in the railroad world.

But do businesses really make money by cutting customers?

CSX should be working to attract new rail customers to these under used branch lines, not abandoning them. If history has taught us, abandoning rail lines is often a bad idea.

In other cases, under used urban lines are usually excellent commuter rails and through partnerships CSX can maintain the use of the line, potentially expand it in the future and commuters benefit's.

Also these lines may not be good at the moment but in the future may be sorely needed.

Due to the high operating costs of a lot of the Class One's, it's oftentimes more efficient to have shortlines or regionals serve the lighter density branchlines. To be honest, class One's don't have a lot of desire to serve the 20 car per year customers, whereas someone like the New England Southern will treat a customer of that stature like royalty. Just imagine how many shippers would still be utilizing rail on the former B&M lines in the immediate Boston area if PAR actually provided some decent service....

I think CSX is likely profitable at this point. My point has been and has
always been that a well maintained railroad does better financially than a
less than well maintained railroad does. I do not think CSX is as well
maintained as it should be and in the case of the former Conrail territory,
I am sure of it as I hear from engineers still working in that area as to the
number of slow orders that exist today.
In today's railroading, the longer it takes to get from point A to point B,
the most costly it becomes and if it gets high enough, the line will cease
to be profitable. It takes more crews and more equipment to produce the
same tonnage and miles when the trains lose time due to slow orders.
Deferred maintenance may have reached a point by this time where they
will have more major problems in the future before they are able to get
caught up with repairs if indeed they ever do.
I know when CSX inherited the Conrail territory in New York State, the
main lines were in superb condition with little or no slow orders and I also
am aware that this is no longer the case today.
I compare this with our own local Florida East Coast, one reason that they
are so successful is their superb maintenance. I would be willing to bet
that they do not have any ongoing slow orders on a daily basis on their
entire main line, they might have one or more on a day to day basis but
I'll bet they get fast attention to repair the problem.
When I worked for Conrail, I had very positive feelings about the
company and especially the maintenance of both the track and the
equipment. If I were still working today (for CSX), I do not think I would
have the same secure feeling that I had a few years back.
Noel Weaver

I don't understand why you think CSX isn't profitable. We can all agree that they definitely need to maintain better, but how can you say there not making money??

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CSX&t=m ... z=m&q=l&c=

SimTrains wrote:I don't understand why you think CSX isn't profitable. We can all agree that they definitely need to maintain better, but how can you say there not making money??

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CSX&t=m ... z=m&q=l&c=

How? Because needed maintenance is being deferred.

If the money WERE put into the physical plant and upkeep of equipment, their bottom line would be far different. The term used to be, "running a business into the ground" - taking money needed for reinvestment, and spending it or paying it to shareholders.

It looks good to people who do not understand the railroad industry - and that probably includes most shareholders and Wall Street - but it's unsustainable.

It's being done (with CSX and other businesses) to "pump" the stock price. Several years ago, Mike Ward, as the new CEO, actually publicly stated that one goal was to get share prices above a certain level.

Why this focus? In most American businesses, "stock options" (the right to buy stock from the company at a reduced or set rate) is a large part of executive pay. The higher the share prices, the bigger management's pay.

And this can hurt (does hurt, almost universally) as management becomes short-term focused, sometimes to the point of bookkeeping fraud.

What SHOULD CSX do? Plow money back into the physical plant and its equipment. The bottom line would look bad for a few years (the result of long-deferred investment) but the end result would look like the Southern or Conrail, and almost certainly make more money as a precision transportation network.

But it won't happen. Conrail and some other railroads used to be in the business of railroading. CSX...is in the business of business.

Other big businesses led by fast-talking grifters have failed or disappeared because of product/capital neglect. And CSX may just go the way of the Illinois Central Gulf...or the Milwaukee.

Instead of fixing CSX, have the management "fixed" ...

SimTrains wrote:I don't understand why you think CSX isn't profitable. We can all agree that they definitely need to maintain better, but how can you say there not making money??

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CSX&t=m ... z=m&q=l&c=

The one problem that I have noticed that CSX is having is a problem with logistics. Most railroads, you would think, would take the direct routes to the Atlantic Coast. If you were to look at the route of a few intermodal trains and the system, some of the trains originate in either Chicago or Cincy that head southeast. For example, Q130 that runs from 59th Street in Chicago to Portsmouth, Virginia runs the over Sandpatch to Cumberland over to D.C. and down through Richmond.

To me, this train should be ran over the C&O Division to Portsmouth from Cincinatti. To a thinkin' man like me wouldn't you want to run the train the quickest way possible? This may be a rumor but do stack trains run an average of an hour and a half late going over the Sandpatch? I've heard this before but I'm wanting to know if this is true or not.

conrail_engineer wrote:How? Because needed maintenance is being deferred.

If the money WERE put into the physical plant and upkeep of equipment, their bottom line would be far different. The term used to be, "running a business into the ground" - taking money needed for reinvestment, and spending it or paying it to shareholders.

So the record amounts of maintenance they've done this year is meaningless? I've seen far more maintenance being performed along the Chicago Line than any other year by a very large margin. The amount of maintenance work being done this summer was absolutely massive, and they're still working hard at it (rebuilding grade crossings, replacing rail, fixing low spots, etc.). It was already a pretty bad bottleneck...if they do any more maintenance, they'll have to literally shut down the entire railroad for half the day to do so. If they keep up this level for the next several years, this line at least will be starting to approach Conrail standards again (although I strongly doubt CSX will ever reach that point).

In terms of management, the jist of it that I got was that Snow ran it into the ground and couldn't care less about running a railroad, while the current CEO is burdened with the results of this reckless behavior. There have been some definite changes made - you have to be blind not to see that. Of course, more could be done...although that's the case with any railroad. Even NS, famed for its "flawless" track by many railfans, could always stand to be better.

I'll conclude this post with the following: no matter what we say on this board, CSX will maintain its tracks however they see fit. Instead of spending 15 minutes typing up a long-winded speech about how bad CSX's track is (and how poor their managers are), I would just assume go watch TV, surf the net, etc. We all know that CSX's track condition is poor, and you'll just end up angrier after you've posted it...but, that's merely how I'd approach things (disclaimer: don't take any of this personally - it's just my opinion, not an attack!).

I've also, along with a few other railfans around my area, have been pondering what CSX is going to do when all these new signals are put in place and the bugs worked out of the system. They have also yet to have put the new signals in on the New River Subdivision. We are thinking, hopefully, that CSX will undertake some sort of "Heartland Corridor" type project here in the not to distant future and that we'll get some sort of intermodal traffic.

Conrail4evr wrote:

conrail_engineer wrote:How? Because needed maintenance is being deferred.

If the money WERE put into the physical plant and upkeep of equipment, their bottom line would be far different. The term used to be, "running a business into the ground" - taking money needed for reinvestment, and spending it or paying it to shareholders.

So the record amounts of maintenance they've done this year is meaningless? I've seen far more maintenance being performed along the Chicago Line than any other year by a very large margin. The amount of maintenance work being done this summer was absolutely massive, and they're still working hard at it (rebuilding grade crossings, replacing rail, fixing low spots, etc.).

How are YOU judged in your job? By how "hard" you work - or by RESULTS?

Yesterday, Willard to Buffalo, we had over 50 slow orders. Eleven of them were 30 mph or under.

New rail was laid from QD 58 to QD 68...and the track is even ROUGHER riding, with wild pitching and bottoming out, that it was previously.

Even when CSX actually does something, they cut corners, don't do it RIGHT. Partly because everything is done on the cheap; and partly because the company demands blind obedience from Home Office commands - issued by people who know nothing about railroading.

These are not just my observations, as I've said - Rush Loving noted exactly the same problems. But the proof of it is what happened to the New York Central Water Level Route since CSX came to own it.

Conrail4evr wrote:
I'll conclude this post with the following: no matter what we say on this board, CSX will maintain its tracks however they see fit. Instead of spending 15 minutes typing up a long-winded speech about how bad CSX's track is (and how poor their managers are), I would just assume go watch TV, surf the net, etc. We all know that CSX's track condition is poor, and you'll just end up angrier after you've posted it...but, that's merely how I'd approach things (disclaimer: don't take any of this personally - it's just my opinion, not an attack!).

That's a reasonable attitude for a railfan.

But I have more riding on their actions...literally. I have to WORK in that environment.

I have to find all those UNMARKED slow orders...read the dot-matrix bulletin printout on a pitching locomotive; get speed down in the CSX approved way (now power brake applications and no "stripping" throttles...

It's a BIG difference from how it used to be, just get on and move the train. It takes MUCH more time; some seven-hour days are now outlaw jobs, consistently.

Constantly checking that bulletin in poor light leads to eyestrain. The pitching locomotives lead to fatigue. And the day just gets longer; and there's the constant worry, are you gonna be the NEXT train to come off the rail, at CP 85 or the rough curve at Willoughby, or the mudhole at QDI 4...

Yah, it's my problem. Trouble is, it's a CSX problem, and it puts people, on the rail and near the right-of-way, in jeopardy. And as someone interested in railroading, in ANY way...you should be disgusted, too.

I should get out? I am working toward leaving CSX. That's what it's come to...whoever heard of people quitting the railroad, in the past?

The next couple of years will be interesting (from an outsider's point of view, anyway). How quickly can they catch up and get the physical plant back in shape? It took Conrail a few years to get those lines to the standards they maintained -- along with heaps of capital.

Indeed, it was a deep concern in Philadelphia in the '95-'96 period when the ill-fated merger with CSX was engineered, with a distinct belief that CSX had been letting things slide for far too long at that time. The system has yet to be modernized to the standards of the other Class I roads, even after all this time.

This situation certainly ended up undermining Conway's abbreviated term at the helm, after being sold down the river by Snow.

Want a wild guess how it will happen?

CSX will start selling itself piecemeal. The Conrail part of it is still officially owned by New York Central Lines LLC (a subsidiary company), and leased to CSX Transportation. Back in 2002, they actually had a bunch of Conrail steel coil cars repainted "NYC" (big block letters, same size and typeface as CSX) instead of the standard CSX paintjob.

I expect the Water Level Route with its high-volume traffic will become too much of a headache for the rust-on-the-rail CSX boys; and be separated as a distinct Class II line. From there, it will tighten connections with one of the Western roads.

From there...I don't know what the situation is down South. In Ohio, the Ohio Central has expressed interest in leasing the old Columbus Line. The Willard Terminal and some surrounding areas might naturally flow to the W&LE.

Contract, contract...just like the ICG did years ago after its ill-fated merger with the GM&O.

I don't think an outright bankruptcy is likely. CSX seems to have something left in their deep pockets; and I'm sure the Ward people are keenly aware there'd be legal repercussions if after their fat compensation, they rode the train wreck into receivership.

Conrail Engineer I can understand your points, and your frustration. Conrail's physical plant was a point of pride, and perhaps even over-maintained. CSX defers a lot of repairs, and their big capital plan is really just the actual maintenance of the current physical plant. Therefore the grand numbers do not impress me, rather the slow order lists are the pulse of the railroad's upkeep. In the south, the Atlantic Coast Line double tracked from Richmond,VA to Jacksonville,FL except where they needed to cross a swamp or two. The line was relaid with 150 lb rail, new ballast, and CTC in the early 1950's. Some segments were timetabled at over 100 mph, and it was truly a raceway. What kills me is today in 2007 we are behind the times. CSX ripped up most of the double track, and has let this once great track rot away. The North End Sub, South End Sub, Charleston Sub, and Nahunta Sub make up this segment. Together there is 9 pages roughly of slow orders. Most of them are rotting ties, wide gauge, surfacing, railhead of shape, etc.

If the NS can maintain tracks to standard, why cant CSX? I worked for the NS, and never saw a slow order. At CSX it is common practice. Despite record profits are tracks are rotting away, I never seen or heard of all the broken rails down here recently.

Don't even get started on carrying all those ridiculous bulletins, books, and getting permission through form W's..

Can anyone talk about Conrail's maintenance programs??? Thanks