UP-NS Agree to $85 Billion Merger

[JCitron]

Absolutely correct, and isn't it funny that the brass never seems to get the memo? Them good 'ol train boys of the past knew their role, they understood logistics, and they literally knew how to run a railroad. Sure profit was important as it always in in business; however, not at the expense of their clientele and consumers.

The train world always fascinated me since I was a kid. I loved seeing Soo Line, Burlington Northern, and Santa Fe's traveling over the crossings in the late 70s and the 80s. Going into St. Paul as a kid to visit family took us past the Pig's Eye rail yard that's nestled under the bluffs, and to a little kid it was a life size model railroad (and oh how I wanted to play big boy trains). Today it's lost so much of the magic (and those of you older than me truly saw that magic in your youths) and this merger if the Federal Government approves it (you know they will because like all consolidations they NEVER see consequences) will ruin the magic once again.

It is amazing isn't it. The brass doesn't care as long as they can meet the expectations of the stock analysists at the expense of everyone else and walk away with big fat bonuses stuffed in their already stuffed pockets.

I worked for Polaroid and then later a spin-off. Polaroid was cut up, carved up, and forced into the ground much as I described. Like the railroads, the CEO came from another industry whose sole purpose was to carve up the company for profit. I predict the same will happen to CSX should they join forces with BNSF.

I do remember the older days of the 60s and 70s when I grew up. I also remember the demise of the NYC, B&M, MEC, Pennsy, New Haven, and so many other companies as corporations offshored business to keep the profits up at the expense of whole communities. I saw it again when Guilford destroyed the D&H, B&M, and MEC. The B&M was actually profitable by that point, after coming out of a reorganization, while the MEC was always profitable. Guilford and later PAR put nothing into these roads as they ran them into the ground. They ditched the hurting D&H after lopping off a portion of their mainline instead of rebuilding it.

 

[pdkoester]

Shareholders and profits, that is what most businesses are about, period.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

Shareholders and profits, that is what most businesses are about, period.

Now let a CEO tell the shareholders to their face they can take a back seat and shut up because we’re trying to make a profit without compromising long term sustainability. They’ll be out of there quickly. Look what happened when NS tried to resist Ancora Holdings’ demands to fully embrace PSR. NS nearly got taken over by them.

 

[pdkoester]

Now let a CEO tell the shareholders to their face they can take a back seat and shut up because we’re trying to make a profit without compromising long term sustainability. They’ll be out of there quickly. Look what happened when NS tried to resist Ancora Holdings’ demands to fully embrace PSR. NS nearly got taken over by them.

They wouldn't do that, it wouldn't make sense from their point of view.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

They wouldn't do that, it wouldn't make sense from their point of view.

They wouldn’t do what? Tell the shareholders to kick rocks? I would gladly tell them to should it be warranted.

 

[pdkoester]

They wouldn’t do what? Tell the shareholders to kick rocks? I would gladly tell them to should it be warranted.

Well, you can get hired on, work your way up.

 

[Forester1]

I rather think it would be worded in terms of long-term stock value.

 

[AFdude06]

please no

Too ugly? Too soon? Probably both... that isn't a serious attempt at what may be. I just was goofing with an AI image generation.

Don't worry guys, I've been working on proper mock up for what it could look like on Dave's ET44AC. I'll post screenshots when its done.

 

[JCitron]

I rather think it would be worded in terms of long-term stock value.

Holding companies don't care about long-term stock value. They want their money now just like many gimmie pigs we know.

I saw this play out with a local hospital system. Look up Steward Medical and their bankruptcy. They got what they deserved too and so did the CEO. I also saw this attitude at Oracle and at Polaroid. Polaroid was the beginning of this at the level we're seeing today back in 1998-99. The CEO at Polaroid came in from Black and Decker, yeah B&D where he worked to offshore the company headquarters to the Caymen Islands to skirt paying taxes and to offshore manufacturing. At Polaroid, he downsized the company back to "core technology" meaning instant film while selling off the profitable divisions such as Holography, Graphics Imaging, Medical Imaging, Digital Imaging, and Eyeware among others. There's a genius move. Keeping the instant film products while selling off the Digital Imaging division while digital imaging was becoming the standard.

While selling off the profitable pieces, he and his cronies stuffed big bonuses into their pockets with each sale. In the end, Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and in the process screwed over its employees who lost their stock pension fund and medical coverage. The company was employee owned and the mandatory stock purchase by employees was used to fund their retirement. They were promised lifetime medical coverage and that was taken from them as well while management walked away with huge golden parachutes and cash bonuses because the cash bonuses were part of their compensation.

We saw this with the Montreal, Maine, and Quebec prior to the Lac Mégantic accident. The rolling stock and locomotives were in poor shape and the tracks were so poor that some sections were down to 10 mph or worse. When CP-Rail took over, they had to replace nearly every railroad tie on the lines to bring them up to safe standards. Their investment company, I can't remember the name of now, put nothing into the railroad and was there with their Hoover picking up any profits that happened to come along there way.

Anyway, before PSR NS was doing well. They weren't showing the 1000% profit that the stockholders wanted but they were doing the railroad business thing and putting money back into the company as they upgraded lines and infrastructure. Then the holding company got ahold of them and this is what happened. They stopped the infrastructure upgrades and were forced into PSR, and we saw what happened in East Palestine as a result.

 

[skittlekicks]

If you want to talk about companies that don't care, think graphics company 3DFX who cooked the books, then add ENRON. While neither were mergers, they hurt thousands of consumers and employees. Then think about the lies the Senate committee was told about radio consolidation, (watch the documentary called Corporate FM). Why do you think we hear the same crap music in heavy rotation? We let fools dictate and get the big payout.

The UP and NS merger is more of an Uncle Scooge and "greed is good" Gordon Gecko mentality. No one other than the board, shareholders, and top level exes will benefit.

The US is still picking up the catastrophic pieces in logistics thanks to COVID, but these "geniuses" think that all problems will be solved if they gobble up competition.

At some point it will become "one rail to rule them all."

 

[AFdude06]

Well, after a couple of days' work, may I present...
the fresh, new, post-merger Union Pacific.

EDIT: Only now do I realize that junctions were visible lol.

 

[Forester1]

I wonder how it would look the opposite, with the NS up front and the UP wings along the sides. Like CrazyTrain said, probably look like a pegasus.

 

[AFdude06]

I wonder how it would look the opposite, with the NS up front and the UP wings along the sides. Like CrazyTrain said, probably look like a pegasus.

I experimented with the NS nose decal with the shield instead of the horse, hut it clashed way too much. I do think the mane livery was a really good way to bring NS styling to the UP colors, as well as replacing Harbor Mist Gray with black. I'm thinking one change I'll make will be to change the NS swoosh on the flanks to yellow rather than white.
Any other suggestions?

 

[JCitron]

Well, after a couple of days' work, may I present...
the fresh, new, post-merger Union Pacific.

EDIT: Only now do I realize that junctions were visible lol.

This scheme isn't much different than some of the newer heritage and one-of-a-kind paint schemes we see now on both NS and CSX.

 

[Forester1]

I appreciate the experimentation! I can't get past the UP yellow mane, it just doesn't seem right. But then I doubt UP is going to put the NS horse up front either. Soooooo, I am kind of at a loss.

 

[blueodessey]

From what I've heard, NS isn't too kind to its employees either. To make matters worse, once they got into that PSR kick, employees and customers got the short end of the stick.

With mergers like this comes lots of blood shed as branch lines and main lines are lopped off as routes are consolidated. Layoffs will be a big thing as management consolidates positions and senior officials start infighting to remain in power.

In the olden days, railroads were run by people who knew how to run railroads. Now, just like many other industries, including healthcare, the people in charge have absolutely no understanding or clue on how the industry operates, and work and live by spreadsheet only. These people work for stockholders and investment houses and not for the good of the company. They aren't employees who worked their way up the ranks, or people who came in from like industries. The CEO is planted by a board of directors to do their bidding to ensure that their investment maximizes their portfolios.

When all is said and done in the end, it's the customers who will lose out because these people who live by spreadsheets and stockholder's wishes, don't care about customers and only about how large their bonuses will be after they've slashed the company and sold off the assets in order to meet stockholder expectations.

Spot on John and shareholders are so smart, that they can kill the Goose that lays the golden Egg.

Need to smarten up and see how it supposed to work.

But Greed is still around heaven forbid comment sense thinking, and customer is king..

 

[AFdude06]

This scheme isn't much different than some of the newer heritage and one-of-a-kind paint schemes we see now on both NS and CSX.

Yeah, I took inspiration from the NS 4000 series DC to AC locomotives. I wasn't even thinking about it originally, but now I definitely see the similarity to CSX's heritage fleet.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

So do I, have not liked how UP does business or manages it's employees. Don't know anything about NS, but I can tell, there is lot of Customers in California that did not get good service over the decades. Ever wonder why we have so many trucks on our Freeways and Cities. Because certain Rail companies wanted simple Sea Enter-model service from point A to B.

Lots of Industrial Leads and Branch Lines cut.

Plus the Southern Pacific was taken over by Corporate Raider and sold off to UP.

In addition 3 mile Trains don't work well, when they don't have 3 mile passing Sidings.

Actually a lot of businesses served railroads packed up and left California to greener pastures, mainly foreign countries. While the railroad’s indifference to customers and shippers didn’t help matters at all, it’d be remiss to not point out some entities abandoned them too. Look at the Bay Area for example. Bayshore Yard in Visitacion Valley ceases to exist because the abundance of heavy manufacturing that reigned supreme in California before the digital technology age came about dried up. There’s plenty more examples I won’t dive into for the sake of brevity but agree with most of your statements.

 

[Forester1]

Well, now I am wondering how it would look if, instead of "Union Pacific" in the box, there was no box, it just said "Union Pacific" in big white letters, maybe keep that feathering on the left side of the "U". But it might be awkward that way.

 

[JCitron]

Actually a lot of businesses served railroads packed up and left California to greener pastures, mainly foreign countries. While the railroad’s indifference to customers and shippers didn’t help matters at all, it’d be remiss to not point out some entities abandoned them too. Look at the Bay Area for example. Bayshore Yard in Visitacion Valley ceases to exist because the abundance of heavy manufacturing that reigned supreme in California before the digital technology age came about dried up. There’s plenty more examples I won’t dive into for the sake of brevity but agree with most of your statements.

We had the same thing here in New England. The old industries closed over the decades but there were still many served by rail. That was until Guilford came along. That organization was interested in end-to-end freight from North Maine Junction near Bangor, ME to Buffalo NY.

Yes, we lost industries, thanks to NAFTA and offshoring but also due to changes in population and economic standing. The paper industry, a big player in Maine, closed many plants due to trade changes and the 1990s recession. I know this recession very well because it affected the whole graphics industry. Lumber was curtailed thanks to NAFTA and trade with Canada, and in greater Boston and other cities, other industries were told to take a hike because they smelled or made noise in areas that were once industrial and were now becoming NIMBY areas much like in California.

But what rail-served companies remained were encouraged to switch to trucks rather than use rail. Guilford went as far as to rip up rails without permission and ignored court orders when told to put them in. Many other companies gave up on the railroad because the service was so unreliable. Guilford let everything rot or become overgrown. Zero maintenance was done on many branch lines The Wakefield to Danvers branch was so overgrown that a sapling ripped open a fuel tank on a GP-40 delivering boxcars to a paper distributor in Reading this played out in many areas.

When the remaining stub of the Manchester and Lawrence, a railroad that dated back to 1842 was let go, it was done due to poor condition and washouts. They let the line run down and used a washout in Salem, NH to rip the tracks up. Salem had a number of industries up there that received service including a plastic bag manufacturer, a lumber yard, and a feed and grain dealer. This was in addition to a number at a Methuen industrial park, and a handful in Lawrence.

I'm afraid the same will happen with this merger. No care for the customers or employees as the big brass shove all their gold coins into piles on the tables.