(The following editorial appeared on The Capital-Journal website on April 19.)
TOPEKA, Kan. — Matthew Rose is always welcome in Topeka, especially when he brings good news.
Rose, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, was in Topeka last week as an Oscar Stauffer Executive in Residence at Washburn University.
He spent much of the day talking to Washburn students about the challenges he faces in his job.
At a news conference, he expressed confidence in the growth of the economy and the promise it holds for his railroad.
And what’s good for BNSF still is good for Topeka, even though Topeka is no longer the corporate headquarters for what formerly was known as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
The railroad remains an important employer in Topeka with 1,000 employees at its S.E. 9th and Quincy office building and at the complex of shops northeast of downtown.
Rose said BNSF will be hiring 1,600 employees in 2004, more than double what it normally hires.
Topeka recently received a transfer of 46 shop jobs from Burlington, Iowa. Beyond that, Rose gave no indication of any further job increases in the Topeka area.
But he did say he thought the jobs in Topeka would remain stable.
After the past couple of years of jobs disappearing during the down economy, even that sounds like good news.
He also said the company will continue outsourcing some jobs, including information technology jobs, to India.
That is troubling news to a lot of Americans, who hear economists try to explain how that is good for the American economy, but who still can’t understand how that could be.
Rose said the railroad’s intermodal service — moving freight in truck containers on railroad cars — grew more than 20 percent last year. Much of that growth can be attributed to trade with China.
But there are some concerns, too, including a bottleneck in the inefficient California ports where the railroad picks up the freight to be distributed to the rest of the country.
A 50 percent increase in steel prices in the past six months is another challenge.
Overall, the message was upbeat. Come back, anytime, Matt.