Neff is the fourth hump UP has idled amid its shift to Precision Scheduled Railroading. The humps at Proviso Yard in Chicago, Hinkle Yard in Oregon, and Pine Bluff Yard in Arkansas were previously mothballed as the railroad de-emphasizes major terminals and switches cars fewer times en route.
UP shut the hump at Neff Yard this week.
“As a result, we will now build overhead blocks to drive cars deeper into the network and leverage existing flat switching terminals in the Kansas City complex,” Chief Operating Officer Jim Vena told investors and analysts on the railroad’s quarterly earnings call Thursday morning.
Some of Neff’s switching work will shift to UP’s 18th Street and Armourdale yards in Kansas City, Kan. Approximately 200 jobs were cut at Neff, although some of the laid off railroaders will be offered positions elsewhere on the UP system.
Employment levels at UP dropped by 13%, or 5,664 positions, in the third quarter compared to the same period a year ago.
UP also says it shifted classification work out of its Davis Yard in Roseville, Calif., to other facilities in the region, which has sped up transit times for merchandise shipments, Vena says.
Vena did not say that UP has idled the hump at Roseville, which the railroad has billed as the largest yard west of the Rockies.
In Louisiana, UP has moved switching performed at Alexandria to its more efficient hump yard in Livonia, Vena says.
“Going forward we will continue to look for ways to reduce car touches, which undoubtedly [will] lead to additional terminal rationalization opportunities on our network,” Vena says.
UP’s key operating metrics improved in the quarter as it continued to make changes under its Unified Plan 2020, its version of Precision Scheduled Railroading.
Terminal dwell improved by 20% compared to a year ago, while freight car velocity, measured by miles per day, was up by 10%. Train speed dipped by 1%, which Vena attributes to longer trains doing more work en route.
Systemwide train length is up 15% this year, led by a 21% increase in train length in the Chicago-Texas Mid-America Corridor and an 18% increase in the Sunset Corridor between Southern California and Santa Teresa, N.M., which is just west of El Paso, Texas.
UP has completed projects to add and extend sidings on the remaining single-track sections of the Sunset Route, enabling it to handle the longer trains, Vena says.
Locomotive productivity improved 18% as UP had 2,600 locomotives stored as of Sept. 30.
Glad I did all my serious UP railfanning years ago! Trains seem to be fewer and far between these days. And did the UP also shut down all the wash racks? Cannot remember the last time I saw a clean locomotive.
Train counts dropping, big numbers of locomotives and rolling stock mothballed all over the system, iconic rail yards closing all over the system, coal is steadily shrinking, intermodal dropping with the China trade war, the negative hits keep on coming. Yet somehow rates are six percent higher this year. Regardless of what STB says, there is virtually no competition among railroads. The trucks will eat their lunch on everything except what they can’t logistically handle.The rails can price as they please, do whatever they want. And all this is eating away at the core of UP. Then UP brings in hatchet man Vena to carve up and dismantle America’s greatest railroad. And he is just getting started. Wait til UP figures out they don’t need all the parallel one-way mains in the central US. Employee morale stinks, regardless of the spin UP gives out. I shudder to think what the UP will look like in a decade, a mere shadow of its’ once grand self.
The real metric is the customers satisfaction with timely ” customers time not the railroads time ” delivery and pickup of freight cars. While investors make like the numbers since actual revenue is off then it appears the customers are not using the railroads.
Regarding the “Bath areas” or Wash racks: These cost a lot of money to operate, that equates to labor costs. With the current regulations, any and all water used must be retrieved and cleaned (treated). No longer can the water and run-off materials be allowed to seep into the ground. This upgrade can cost a boat-load of $$ to comply with. Many of the RR’s are subject to the daily rise and fall of Wall Street investors, and are constantly looking at ways to curb unnecessary expenditures. It looks good on paper, to heck with outward appearances.
Sad indeed. Nothing finer than to see a few freshly washed units at track speed across the US with a long string of revenue producers behind them.
Mister Messera:
Actually, the federal government does have authority to keep the railroad running, if necessary, and there is precedent for it (though you don’t expect me to dig it out and cite it at three on Sunday morning).
In the early 1950’s there was a steel strike. This strike idled capacity essential to the national welfare. The government obtained a back-to-work order and production resumed.
This was used as the basis for the cleanup of the NY Central/PRR/whatever debacle which was Penn Central and Conrail, a forced marriage.
If UP goes belly up and the government deems the operation of that trackage to be essential to to the national economy yes, they can step in. Whether they do is another issue, not to be answered until if and when.
The above comments are genetic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. The answer is 42.
R Messera, that is the big problem. The STB is structured to basically can and do nothing. Some system. Yes, these railroads, including the UP, can do nearly anything they want and it is one of the reasons you see so many trucks on the Interstate highway system. Congress of course will do nothing until it is too late.
Lay off employees, alienate customers and lose more business. Looks like the railways are striving to close down. Will the last railway employee please turn off the lights!
This is an industry that is swirling down the drain, but does not know it while the last bit of assets are stripped lowering cost in the mist increased profits with deteriorating revenue. CSX is in the same boat and the railroads boast about this. Meanwhile the great STB sits around with its collective hands in their pockets. Wait until these railroads are stressed for bad weather or other related issues. They are laying off additional personal KC too.
Interesting. When Short Line yard in Des Moines was emptied out earlier this year (side note: I saw cars in it again when I drove over it a few weeks ago, but I don’t know if that means it’s reopened or just temporary), one of the yards that received that traffic was Neff yard. Now its hump is being idled. Whether it’s PSR or a slowing economy, traffic is definitely down on the UP.
You can always improve car velocity with fewer carloads. Carloads down 11% on UP year over year.
They are still trying to push rates up 6% andwill walk away from business if they don’t get it.
Getting more and more of less and less until they have all there is of nothing.
Sigh…
And the dismantling of a once great railroad continues.
Mr. Ash, What exactly do you expect the STB to do? In this situation, exactly what authority do they have to do anything? If the UP wants to run itself into the ground can they actually stop them? Define s legal basis for them to act.