PC: RE: It was a bad move anyway...

["Armstrong, John A" <ArmstronJA@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim,

Speak for yourself!   As a shipper, I can say that there certainly has been plenty of short term pain.  But the fact that many hours have been spent debating who is busier (CSX or NS) illustrates the point about competition.  The fact is, there was nothing to debate before June 1 of 99.

Just because Conrail was successful doesn't mean it was right!  They should have been successful, they were the only game in town.  The problems that CSX is having on the ex CR nee NYC main in upstate NY goes back much further than 9 months.  Conrail was obviously not investing much money in the line.  Lines don't go to pot in 9 months!!!

Conrail was not investing a great deal in motive power; the 30 new SD80MAC's in 1996 were less than 2% of their fleet total.  Nothing was ordered for a 1997 delivery and 98 was going to see 28 more SD80MAC's.  All of the other majors were ordering units in the hundreds and turning over at least 5% annually.

	The management team that just met it's demise was the Conrail team that was introduced to CSX after the merger.  Maybe NS and CSX saved Conrail from themselves!!!  I certainly have no desire to return to the Conrail way of doing business.  The "take it or leave it because we know you have no alternative" of the "good old days".  It has become increasing clear on the Southern Tier that a good portion of Conrail's success here was the fact that they had so little to do that could afford to concentrate on the handful of customers they had not managed to "loose".

	Just as NS has managed to turn themselves around, CSX will also survive.  They have no choice.  NS will raid their business if they don't.  This is a factor that Conrail never had to deal with.  

	John

> -------
> From: 	Jim Kosty[SMTP:j_kosty -AT- hotmail.com]
> Reply To: 	penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> Sent: 	Thursday, April 13, 2000 12:05 PM
> To: 	penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> Subject: 	PC: It was a bad move anyway...
> 
> This one was a bad move in my opinion.  The shippers were saying how this 
> would give them a choice, and the competition would make it great for them.  
> Now I bet that a lot of them wish they had the reliable service they had 
> under CR.  I think in time the problems will be behind tham, but what's the 
> deal with CSX and poor track?  And especially on the old NYC main here in 
> Upstate NY?  It had always been a high - speed, high traffic density line, 
> but now the FRA says the track speed may be forced down to 50 maximum?  PC 
> did better than that - I saw them running Flexi Van mail trains at passenger 
> train speeds with E units up there, on jointed rail, in 1970!
> Jim Kosty
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> 
>