This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
November 2007
Vern Graham • Canadian Pacific Railway Don Bagley • CSX Transportation Wayne E. Russell • Florida East Coast Railway L.L.C. T.J. Drake • Norfolk Southern Railway Bill Wimmer • Union Pacific Railroad
What’s the biggest change that’s taken place in your department during the past five years, and how has that change affected the way you do your job? With the growth in rail transportation in North America over the past five years, the biggest change in the MOW department has been the pressure to complete the work that has to be done within smaller track block windows. As a result, we created a high-performance “Capacity Management Work Block Planning Team” made up of people from the engineering, product design and material management departments. Team members work together to produce the most optimum track blocks that will facilitate the delivery of material, the maximum fluidity of the network for operations and the largest window of time for our MOW crews to perform their work. What are the best opportunities for outsourcing MOW functions at your railroad? What doesn’t lend itself to outsourcing? We have labor agreements in place and comply with the terms and conditions of those for the basic renewal work; thus, our basic infrastructure renewal is limited in outsourcing. We do outsource some work that fits within those specialty areas that we do not have expertise in or the ability to acquire the technology. When new technology is developed, and it is a specialty machine such as a flash butt electric welder, we will outsource those services. We also outsource much of our ditch renewal and shoulder ballast cleaners. Lastly, major construction projects such as what we did with our Westcap expansion was outsourced due to the need to complete the work within a limited construction season. What’s the best recent example of how your department has made a tangible contribution to improving service reliability at your railroad? As a result of capacity issues and our focus to improve the velocity and the fluidity of our network, we instituted the “SWARM” process for major track renewal on our network. Instead of having a tie crew work on multiple subdivisions a year, we now plan and execute our work on one or two subdivisions per high-production crew. Each tie crew will cover between 150 and 200 miles installing 125,000 to 175,000 ties. Within the SWARM, we will also plan our switch, culvert, bridge, joint reduction, crossing, ditching and ballast cleaning work. This reduces logistics for material distribution, improves the condition of this segment for multiple years and accelerates the renewal of the railway as a result of increased productivity.
back to top
As in any business or endeavor, we are all seeking to improve. Regardless of the focus — whether it is to improve safety and productivity, reduce traffic interruptions, reduce costs, etc. — we have to take a hard look at tradition, our strengths and our weaknesses, and determine how best to accomplish the goals of the company. Traditionally, as with almost all railroads, everything was accomplished with our own forces. But when we began to visit each area of the department, we found that our asset utilization was pretty poor. Unfortunately, we had equipment that was only being used 50 percent to 75 percent of the time. This was primarily due to the size of the property and the various types of projects that had to be completed each year. To make a long story short: We began rationalizing those assets that were underutilized in parallel with attrition. Our primary focus today is enhancing our base workforce with the equipment and tools they need to maximize safety and efficiency. What are the best opportunities for outsourcing MOW functions at your railroad? What doesn’t lend itself to outsourcing? I pretty well beat up this subject up in responding to the first question, but to sum it up: Just about any work that requires special equipment and/or expertise that we cannot support the vast majority of the year will be considered for outsourcing. We like to work with service providers who have proven records for repeat business and, where possible, work with others where we can help them establish themselves with some of our lesser-used assets. As mentioned above, time-sensitive traffic and Mother Nature are always going to challenge us. We need a basic workforce to handle surface problems, special trackwork and the day-to-day maintenance firefights. What’s the best recent example of how your department has made a tangible contribution to improving service reliability at your railroad?
While our property is not highly seasonal, we do see more business in the fourth quarter. Keeping this in mind and considering the summer heat and potential for hurricane disruptions in this part of the country, we made a concerted effort this year to accomplish our heaviest work load in the first half of the year. While we do have some programs that run continually throughout the year, we were able to accomplish our major work on the mainline by mid-July and then move into the yards. This approach will minimize the number of track windows and work-related slow orders during the time when the volume of time-sensitive traffic is at its highest.
Related Topics: