(The following report appeared on the Longview News-Journal website on November 4.)
LONGVIEW, Texas — Trains passing through Longview and the number of employees locally are on the rise, thanks to the railroad industry’s record-setting year for freight volume.
“Positions have been added in Longview, you bet,” said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad.
He said about 35 trains pass through Longview daily, up by about five from two years ago.
During one week last month, the rail industry moved the most freight volume in its history. The volume was 33.1 billion ton-miles, eclipsing the 32.7 billion ton-miles mark set a week earlier, according to the Association of American Railroads. Through the end of October, railroads had moved 1.3 trillion ton-miles this year, or 4 percent more than the same period a year ago.
A ton-mile is an industry standard measurement of one ton of goods moving one mile.
Keys to increased freight volume include the improving economy, increased international trade, bumper crops and higher fuel prices.
Davis said there are 290 Union Pacific employees in Longview, but he couldn’t provide information about the number of new employees added recently.
“We’ve been growing over the year,” Davis said of freight volume. “Back in January, we began seeing an increase in the traffic, so we put together a very aggressive hiring program.”
Systemwide, he said, Union Pacific has hired 5,000 switchmen, brakemen and conductors. All are entry level jobs, Davis said. He said anyone interested in working for the railroad can apply online at www.up.com.
Increased freight volume also is a reason Union Pacific is adding locomotives at a record pace. Davis said the railroad company usually purchases or leases 150 to 200 locomotives annually. This year, he said, the company will purchase or lease 750.
Increased freight volumes haven’t had a negative effect on Amtrak. In fact, said Marc Magliari, Amtrak’s media relations manager, the company’s Texas Eagle has improved its on-time performance more than any of the other long-distance trains Amtrak operates. The Texas Eagle, which stops in Longview, runs almost solely on track owned by Union Pacific.
That boom in volume has led to rising profits for railroad companies — Kansas City Southern last week reported a $6.8 million, or 158 percent, increase in third quarter profits from a year ago — and many new jobs. But it’s also caused headaches for the companies and their customers.
Companies said they’ve had to scramble to buy new locomotives, schedule more trains and hire more people. That includes the country’s second largest railroad.
“The rail industry has been carrying record tonnage, but the growth had been a more measured pace, 3 to 5 percent,” said Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Corp., which hired 2,300 entry-level conductors this year compared with the usual 800. “This year, in terms of BNSF, we’re experiencing three years of normal growth in a single year. That’s being hit with a very big wave. We take our hats off to our operations department.”
(Staff writer Jim Hardin contributed to this report.)