Status of the Railroad - A Message from Kenny Rocker, EVP, Marketing & Sales
Announcement Number: CN2023-21
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: March 27, 2023
To Our Customers,
Spring is here – and I’m looking forward to brighter and milder weather ahead. Mother Nature was fierce and relentless this winter – bringing historic storms across large portions of our network. Just look at Donner Pass in Northern California’s Sierra Mountains, nearly 700 inches of snow has fallen there so far this year, which is more than 200% of the average snowfall. I want to thank you for your patience as our Operating and Engineering teams worked safely and tirelessly to recover the network.
Flood Planning & Recovery
While our network saw record snowfall in California, we also saw near-record totals in some of the states that comprise the northern portion of our network. We are hoping that Mother Nature has a plan for a slow and steady snowmelt this year and we will be closely watching the possibility for spring flooding throughout California and locations between the Twin Cities to St. Louis. Now is a good time to ensure your company is ready by reviewing our Flood Planning and Recovery page for best practices to follow during flooding events.
Hiring Update
Our team has built more resiliency into our operations, and you can see it especially when it comes to the availability of our crew members. Year to date, we have graduated 315 crew employees, almost twice the number compared to the first quarter 2022. Our hiring pipeline continues to remain strong as there are more than 820 employees in training. And although we are making more progress hiring in challenged labor markets in remote locations, we will continue to utilize borrow-outs to support the network. We currently have approximately 240 borrow-outs working in our Northern region.
Our Metrics
Here are our latest weekly metrics reported to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on March 24. As you will see, we’ve taken a step back from the last time I shared our metrics with you. This is due to three significant events that impacted mainline operations over the last couple of weeks: (1) California flooding, mud and rockslides, (2) Wyoming snowstorm with blizzard conditions, and (3) a service interruption near Topeka, Kansas. However, the Operating team has quickly rebounded from these events – our current weekly car velocity has increased to levels we saw in early March.
The following metrics are compared to performance in mid-April 2022, and are based on the STB definitions for industry reporting:
- Car Velocity: Improved 4% to 183 miles per day.
- First Mile, Last Mile: Improved 1 point to 91%.
- Trip Plan Compliance (TPC):
- TPC Bulk (unit train): Improved 18 points to 84%
- TPC Manifest: Improved 9 points to 68%
- TPC Intermodal: Flat at 73%
Thank You
We appreciate your patience and support as we adjust our resources to meet more customer demand. We remain committed to deliver a more consistent and reliable service product that meets your needs. As always, thank you for your business.
Kenny Rocker
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales