The "Big Three" - CSX, NS, UP - whom have implemented operating practices associated with "The Gospel According to Saint Elwood", first known as Precision Railroading, and later as Precision Scheduled Railroading, or PSR, all have stakeholders to whom they must answer.
There is a "pecking order" within those stakeholders.
First, so far as I'm concerned, is the investors who have staked their capital in the expectation that a company's manager will bring them a sufficient return on their investment by having the present value of expected earnings into perpetuity continually rise - after all that represents the "market cap". That present value is of course affected by the market interest rate (usually defined by 10yr US Treasury Notes). Yields for such go up, down goes that present value and v.v.
Obviously the shippers are stakeholders and are up there with investors, who obviously are aware any defections to another road or mode would adversely affect that noted present value and market cap. Shippers plan their production and distribution around timely handling of lading be the railroads. Think the "just in time" practices of the auto industry, for if hypothetical engines and transmissions assembled in Detroit or Windsor do not arrive in Kansas City "more or less on time", F-150's will stop rolling off the line. That will make King Henry's descendants back in Dearborn, uh "unhappy". if a major shipper decided to "go elsewhere" that would be a "wake up" in Atlanta, JAX, or Omaha, resulting in a "reassessment" of PSR operating practices.
Employees, and their representatives, too are stakeholders. Management should be willing to listen to the likes of Messrs. Junkie and Spatch that current operating practice are adversely affecting the "fluidity" of the railroad. The railroad is drawbars and draft gears "on the ground" and not some oversized Fortnight gameboard in a year round 72dg environment.
Finally are "interlopers" and by that I mean Amtrak or any other public agency that by means of enacted legislation has required a road to make their facilities available to them - and all too often for some kind of "bargain basement" remuneration. Honestly, they best take what the roads can offer which is "for better or worse, this is how we choose to run our road. We will get you over it, and despite what your advocates like to rant, will not willfully delay you. But our operations come first, as we have stakeholders who do more for us than do you."
disclaimer: author long UNP (previously held BNI, CSX, KSU, NSC; no longer account tender offer or "sector overweight")
Last edited by Gilbert B Norman on Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:15 am, edited 3 times in total.
