OMAHA, Neb. — New Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena shared his vision for the railroad in a letter to employees today, his first day back at the railroad.
“My vision and focus are clear: Safety, Service and Operational Excellence will equal Growth. Together, we will achieve the best safety record in the industry, be known for superior service grounded in operational excellence — and because of these things — we will achieve growth,” Vena wrote.
Vena emphasized his experience as a ballast-level railroader at Canadian National and how his management roles in operations and marketing underscored the importance of service. He rose through the ranks and ultimately became CN’s chief operating officer, a role he took at UP in 2019 and 2020 as the railroad adopted the lean Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model.
“During my time at UP as COO, I learned what it takes to implement change — and how hard change can be. I also saw how bright, resilient and honorable this organization is,” Vena wrote. ”I benefited from your courage to do something we hadn’t done before, and your sacrifices to become leaner, fitter and more resilient for all of our stakeholders.”
Vena pledged to help make UP “the safest railroad in the world” and to improve service while making the railroad more efficient and more reliable.
“What I can also tell you is that you can count on me to be frank, thoughtful, nimble and resilient,” Vena said. “I won’t mince words when the truth must be spoken. I will ask a lot of you — and I will demand even more from myself.”
Vena opened his note by thanking his predecessor, Lance Fritz for setting the railroad up for continued success.
Fritz, in a farewell salute last week, said being UP’s chief executive has “been the honor of a lifetime.”
Fritz said he was proud of the railroad’s commitment to safety, growth, employee quality of life, sustainability, technology, and its diversity and inclusion efforts during his 8 1/2 years at the helm.
“Union Pacific was the only U.S. Class I railroad to experience volume growth in 2022, and we are outperforming the industry again in 2023,” Fritz wrote. “When our markets turn more favorable, we are ready to take off.”
Vena uses the word “sacrifice”. I wonder what the heck their train crews and hundreds of laid off people would call it?. He needs to clean up UP’s act by getting engines out of storage and operating well so his trains will not have failures and can make track speed. And if what I read is correct UP is still short of crews.
And I agree with others that the letter is P.R. that all new head honchos put out. The proof will be in what he does.
Funny that todays CSX article today states they are beating NS and UP in gaining market share. Maybe Fritz didn’t get the memo or he’s practicing to go into politics.
And Lance Fritz spoke volumes in all three. It just goes to show that if you believe a lie and speak a lie often enough,, it becomes a “truth.” Union Pacific is nothing close to what Trains Magazine called “the Super Railroad” back in the 90’s. Its time again for the customer to become king again and if Vena really means what he says, then there is hope that he can right the misdeeds of the last 8-1/2 years and make UP again a “Super Railroad!”
So is Mr. Vena still a PSR devotee?
More power and best of good luck to Jim Vena in his new assignment.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Good luck Jim, your going to need it.
I thought I’d seen articles that said the UP trailed in all statistics over the past years. In addition Trains has had articles indicating freight volume is down.
Something doesn’t add up.
Samuel Clemens once said there are three kinds of lies; “Lie, Damn Lies and Statistics.”