Can't get no respect. Focus on the bottom line.

This is an opinion. The opinion expressed is mine alone, and not that of any group or organization which may otherwise be linked on this website.

I have touched on this problem briefly in my periodic rants about what is wrong with railroading today, both passenger and freight railroading. Railroads have lost the respect of the general public in ways that are no longer related to the robber barons, land grants, or perceived monopolies of past centuries. In much the same way that giant medical conglomerates beholden more to stockholders than to patients have lost the respect or confidence of the general public, so, too, have the big railroad companies--you know who they are--lost the respect of the public and their customers.

It's even worse for railroads, because they are currently locked into a spitting match of their own making based on two things that mean very little to the public. These are Operating Ratio and Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). Much like the medical corporations, railroads, except for BNSF Railway, have become owned by investment groups whose interest isn't in running a particular kind of business. These groups are interested only in running any business that they can force to maximize profit at the expense of anyone who can be dispensed with in the process.

What the public sees is layoffs of longtime railroad employees, both management and frontline, degradations of service and safety, and high-profile executives maximizing their bank accounts while paying lip service to the idea that you have to slash and cut and whittle everything to the bone to make money. None of the latter is true, unless you are irrationally focused on that Operating Ratio or the holy bible of PSR.

More about this next time.

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