Supply Chain Dive, 10/12/17:
Tensions rise as CSX defends new model before frustrated shippers
CSX’s service problems highlight structural issues within the rail industry.
“If I don’t accomplish anything else today, I want to apologize to our valued shippers. Whatever problems we had, we had internally. We’ve made some mistakes. This is not a failure of precision scheduled railroading.”
Those were the words of CSX CEO E Hunter Harrison, apologizing to a room full of shippers, trade associations and regulators present for a Surface Transportation Board (STB) listening session held Wednesday.
The conversation was meant to focus on the service delays caused by CSX's transition to precision scheduled railroading — Harrison's trademark operating model. Yet, as the day went by, more and more guests took to the floor to address what they saw as the larger problem in the industry: a disregard for customer service due to a lack of competition.
CSX's issues were viewed as a symptom of this structural imbalance. . . .