— Creel said that while railroading might eventually see significant savings through adoption of one-man operating crews or autonomous trains, “but I’ve got some shareholders that aren’t going to wait for that day to come. So we’ve got to continue to innovate and do better with what we have today.”
One way CP is doing that, he said, is through increasing use of predictive analytics, to address problems before they occur.
“I think of something like a hot bearing,” he said. “We’ve created some algorithms that we’ve got a patent on that allow us to set cars out. It has dropped our experience of burnt journals down 60, 70%. And it’s 40 or 50% better than the industry. And we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.
“What does big data mean? It means being able to take history and predicting the future, through analyzing data. So it’s an area where we continue to innovate.”
— He addressed CP’s situation as a company that has to deal with investors in Canada, trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as well as U.S. investors dealing on Wall Street.
“The Canadian investor, the TSX exchange, typically the shareholders, they’re more long-term focused,” Creel says. “They’re more about sustained growth, more about reasonable shareholder return. They’re all about sustainability. You’re in it for the long haul. Versus Wall Street … the pro is that Wall Street pushes you, and as a leader in a high-performance environment, I like to be pushed. It doesn’t bother me. … [But] sometimes, the demographic of your investor can be a little more short-term focused. And this is a long-term business.”
— While saying his railroad has been the safest railroad in North America when measured by train accidents, he said, “It’s hard for me to boast about safety when we haven’t realized the same success when it comes to our personal injuries.
“We went through a very challenging, tragic accident in February 2019. We lost three employees … and then we lost another employee in December.
“When you have those kinds of things happened as a leader, I take that as my responsibility. … You have go to sit with the family the next day, and explain the whys. And to talk through the pain and the suffering it causes, not only for those families, but you see it across the entire railway. … It’s not that we’re not doing something and making a difference. It’s that we’re not doing enough.
“It’s something that in 2020, I expect our team to move the needle on.”
— He said he does not know what his own future looks like beyond his commitment to CP through 2022.
“In all honesty, I haven’t thought beyond it,” he says.
You do not leave the brake handle in the controlling locomotive open in the emergency position and depart the locomotive cab. The train brake line is then at zero pressure (open to atmosphere), and soon thereafter the air in the emergency reservoirs and brake pistons will soon leak off, especially when below zero temperature. The crew that died got on a train that had no air brakes nor any hand brakes, as they were not applied, because the crew felt their service time was used up when they stopped. They failed to take the safe course.
The train brake line can not recharge the brakes on the cars without the handle being move to position to charge the brakes. Air pumps on the locomotive are worthless if the valve handle is not turned to charge the train. The engine brakes would work but that weight train would shove their wheels like a flaming sled and did.
The train sat in that position for 2 hours or more before the recrew got on just before the train would have rolled away on its own, as it was way below zero temperature that night.. At that point when the new engineer touched the brake handle, all the remaining pressure in any brake pistons that was left, then departed to zero pressure in piston, The recrew would be alive if they found the train rolling away or missing when the got there in the taxi.
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There was no pressure in emergency reservoirs in each car (blead off), and no time to recharge the train as it was now running down the canyon.
The CP management failed to run a identical train the next day as a test of what happened when brake valve handle was found left in emergency position, as identified by NTSB.
I need not explain any further of who is responsible. .
Well of course he is ok with it! It just adds to his bonus!