(The following story by Joe Ruff appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on February 27, 2009.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The recession has hit the nation’s freight railroads hard, including Omaha-based Union Pacific, which has idled about 50,000 railcars and furloughed thousands of train and yard workers.
Stacked end to end, the idled cars would stretch 500 miles, or about the distance between Omaha and Scottsbluff, said Donna Kush, railroad spokeswoman.
Railcars have been parked on unused track sidings and other areas, sometimes causing complaints in towns like Thornton, Colo., Kush said Thursday.
U.P. works with community leaders where it has received complaints, Kush said. In Thornton, for example, the railroad parked cars in a less visible area, she said.
“Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, we don’t even know when we can get cars moving again.”
Business began dropping in October and hasn’t improved since. Carloadings across the country were down 14 percent last week compared with the same week in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Union Pacific’s volume had dropped 19 percent this year through Feb. 7, led by a 55 percent decline in the shipment of autos and a 20 percent decline in intermodal traffic, according to the railroad.
U.P. had furloughed about 3,100 train and yard employees by the end of 2008 and could lay off more in the coming months, railroad officials said.
The railroad probably won’t release specific information about any new layoffs until its first-quarter earnings release in late April, Kush said.
Union Pacific also froze pay for top managers and reduced travel as cost-cutting measures.