Union Pacific and Precision Scheduled Railroading

Union Pacific (UP) has announced that it will implement its own version of Precision Scheduled Railroading. To keep this short, I'll refer to it as PSR. You will recall that this is the total, fully involved railroading philosophy of the late E. Hunter Harrison (last of CSX), who made no friends among three of the four most important groups of people who are directly and intimately involved in his railroads. And he did it several times.

Although UP management says that their version of PSR will be more compassionate and not lead to shipper complaints as (almost always) did Harrison's version, the announcement frightened the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) enough to write to UP management asking for weekly updates on the progress of implementation. The letter cited CSX's disruptive implementation that effected not only CSX shippers but also other railroads.

As I see it, UP has always been more sensitive to its employees and shippers than Harrison ever was, but I can also see that the apparent success at CSX from a stockholder point of view puts pressure on UP upper management to do the same. CSX improved its operating ratio, unfortunately a strong argument with stock analysts, but not the only measure of a railroads success or profitability.

PSR works mostly on big railroads that own the infrastructure. Where there is shared trackage or routing, as (for example) with CSX and Amtrak or with UP and KCS in Texas, much can and will go wrong. I think that's why the STB is concerned, and it should be. Let's hope that UP doesn't swallow the PSR bait, hook, line and sinker. Stockholders can get out before a railroad using PSR destroys itself, but where will it leave everyone else?

By the way, the four groups I mentioned above are; 1. Employees; 2. Shippers; 3. Government (STB, FRA, etc.); 4. Stockholders. Yay! for #4.