corporate dribble Wrote:
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> Commenter Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Combining Union Pacific's railroad, which spans
> > much of the western U.S., with Norfolk
> Southern's
> > network in the east, would create the country's
> > first transcontinental rail company, stretching
> > from coast to coast. For shippers, that would
> mean
> > single-line pricing rather than dealing with
> > various operators across separate rail networks
> to
> > get from point A to point B. It also would
> allow
> > for faster delivery thanks to the elimination
> of
> > interchanges and lower costs.
>
> Call me, when Union Pacific starts offering
> short-haul service, intercity service, and
> rebuilds thousands and thousands of miles of
> industrial spurs and sidings, and increases the
> number of local switch jobs from cities large and
> small.
>
> Most of the trucks I see? Dump trucks hauling
> gravel from a quarry to a construction site 10
> miles away. Grocery store trucks from a warehouse
> to a store 20 miles away. Business the railroads
> haven't ever wanted and won't ever want. Those
> trucks still occupy our roads, and Norfolk
> Southern can't help out with on the west coast.
> Hell, Union Pacific can't even figure out an I-5
> corridor service that attracts traffic - they've
> done a great job scaring it away. If UP is
> serious about attracting business, the last thing
> it should do is consider a merger - it should
> focus on attracting so much low hanging fruit
> business in its own network, business it
> intentionally pisses away not because it's
> infeasible, but because UP just doesn't want to do
> it. Because it involves hiring people and
> retaining people and treating people good; it
> involves track maintenance; it involves owning
> locomotives and freight cars.

I could not have said it better.