As yet another hedge fund seeks a hostile takeover of a Class I railroad, Surface Transportation Board Member Robert Primus condemned the “scorched-earth” cuts associated with Precision Scheduled Railroading in a guest column published by Progressive Railroading.
He writes: “Nearly 10 years ago, the largest freight railroads in the United States, commonly known as Class Is, began to cut costs aggressively. They claimed that the cuts were necessary to implement a new operating philosophy called Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). But PSR was merely a pretext for a scorched-earth plan to drastically reduce their costs. And just when you think our freight-rail network and national supply chain are back on solid ground, we now face yet another assault from those who view the Class Is as short-term cash cows.”