Navigating November: Safety, Costs, and Service in Focus

Sean Ireland

Good morning team. Well, we made it through October—hard to believe we're already a couple days into November. And, if you’re anything like me, the months just seem to fly by faster as the year winds down. Let’s talk safety first, because it’s been a rough month, and I want to make sure the whole region is on the same page before we even talk costs or service. We finished up October with eight FRA-reportable train accidents. Three of those—yeah, three—were chalked up to human factors. That’s not even counting the eleven other human factor incidents we had. And I know we’ve been talking about RCO operations and switch issues for what feels like forever, but these problems just… they just keep circling back. It’s like playing whack-a-mole: fix one spot, it comes up in another.

Sean Ireland

So, to start making a dent, we've put two new rule changes out there—one for securement and another for riding equipment, especially when you’re protecting a shove. These aren’t just fresh paperwork for your bag. We’re using operational testing to make sure folks are actually following the new expectations. If you’re still seeing run-through switches, keep those switch cards close. That’s the kind of stuff we’re zoning in on this month, testing and re-testing. It’s about getting it right the first time.

Sean Ireland

And, hey, I want to pause on the whole coaching and follow-up process. Face-to-face minutes, in the yard, not in a stuffy conference room, that make the long-term difference. I mean, we talk about safety culture, but it happens right there—boots on the ground, people asking questions, learning from each other. If you’re a manager or supervisor, that’s where your focus needs to be.

Sean Ireland

We’re rolling out a regional engagement plan next week: job safety briefings should highlight those rule changes, especially securement and RCO riding equipment. If you’re leading, bring it up. If you’re on the crew, ask questions—there’s no dumb question. And, remember, we’ve got two specific operational tests: one shove move, one switch tag, every shift. Nobody’s exempt here. Missed one? Let’s fix it together. This is the core stuff that keeps folks safe and gets everyone home at the end of their shift.

Sean Ireland

I might sound like a broken record about follow-up, but since October, we’ve identified 32 critical operational test failures without documented follow-up. That’s… that’s tough to swallow. Each manager should commit to at least two employee record reviews per week. Treat it like a real chance to have a conversation, not just check a box.

Sean Ireland

Okay, where was I… right, let’s keep pushing this proactive safety culture. We keep building on what we’ve talked about in previous episodes—safety first, every shift.

Sean Ireland

Costs. Yeah, never the fun topic, but it’s got to be front and center for us as we wrap up the year. If you remember, in last week’s episode, I touched on overtime and the push to balance workloads. Well, you all deserve credit—overall, our year-to-date costs are tracking alright, but honestly, “decent” isn’t gonna cut it for these last two months. We’ve still got runway to land a stronger finish on cost containment.

Sean Ireland

For example, just this week, we shifted some blocks in Cumberland and Selkirk—that let us trim down assignments in Philadelphia. Same thing’s about to happen at Demmler. Those micro-adjustments help a lot more than you’d think. Sometimes I get asked—hey, are we sure this isn’t gonna affect service? So far, the teams on the ground are telling us it’s working. And you know what? That local feedback is gold, so keep it coming.

Sean Ireland

Overtime is still the headache, especially around those road jobs, yards, and local assignments. Now, while the snow hasn’t shown up yet—fingers crossed it holds off a little longer—let’s use this window. We’re reviewing how many cars each yard and local assignment are actually handling. If you see areas where combining or balancing jobs will reduce overtime, bring it up. I say this a lot, but local perspectives usually spot the best opportunities for savings.

Sean Ireland

Alright, let’s talk service—because if we can get safety and costs right, but drop the ball on service, then the whole thing falls apart. The Peninsula Sub derailment was the big one this week, and anyone who’s been through a major route outage knows just how quickly your whole plan can go sideways. Fifty-two cars off the track, bridges knocked out, and a coal route critical for us, just closed in, what, a matter of minutes. But mechanical and engineering teams are planning to rebuild it in weeks. The line’s set to be open next Saturday.

Sean Ireland

That kind of response is what I mean when I talk about resilience. Things go wrong—sometimes on a massive scale—but it’s how quickly, how safely, and how effectively we bounce back that determines what kind of company we are. And there’s a ripple effect: when we recover from a setback, customers notice, employees notice, and it feeds into trust—if we actually own our problems and fix them fast.

Sean Ireland

Speaking of trust, I want to put numbers to a nagging issue—32-hour car dwell. We’ve seen slight improvements this week. It’s a trend in the right direction, but we can’t afford to coast. Even more pressing, we’ve spiked up on missed switches: 29 customers, over the last 14 days, where we didn’t hit the mark. That’s not just a ding to our reputation—it’s literally dollars left behind. We need a sense of urgency to bring those numbers down. In earlier episodes, we’ve tackled issues about dwell and missed service, but it keeps coming back, so let’s keep that focus laser sharp this next week.

Sean Ireland

Let me just share something from a few years ago; I handled a call from a customer whose freight had been delayed for days after a minor derailment. It was one of those situations where, honestly, it felt like we’d lost their trust. But after jumping in, owning the problem, and keeping communication open, they actually stuck with us long-term—and became one of our most loyal accounts. What I took from that is, response matters more than perfection. People want to know we care about making things right, not just that we never mess up.