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Earlier this year, The Kansas City Southern Railway Co. (KCSR) made operational and management changes at its Shreveport, La., terminal. Now, the changes are paying off in service metric improvements.

During the past few months, the terminal has increased the number of cars switched per day from 1,000 to 1,200; reduced dwell time from 30 hours to 24 hours; boosted right car/right train/right day accuracy from 73 percent to 83 percent; improved consist accuracy from 65 percent to 85 percent; and raised on-time train originations from 46 percent to 85 percent.

Since January, KCSR has installed a new senior leadership team and new division leadership in the operating department, and assigned new Terminal Superintendent Brian Boutwell.

"Those changes brought a different management style that is focused on establishing repeatable, measurable processes, and a culture of collaboration and teamwork," KCSR officials said in a news item on the "KCS News" Web site.

Terminal managers have focused more on talking with employees about company, terminal and individual shift goals, said Boutwell. In addition, three new yardmasters recently began working at the terminal and now communicate with workers face to face in the field instead of over the phone from the tower, he said.