| Union Pacific -- the railroad established by Congress and Abraham Lincoln to span the continent |
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Welcome to our Union Pacific Railroad WebSite
Here's a preview of some of the exciting projects we have put together for you: Sample Our feature article on Union Pacific Railroad history . Watch Union Pacific news and current events . What is a GREEN RAILROAD? . See our transcontinental railroad history and find out if Union Pacific will be the new truly transcontinental . Find out about other transcontinental railroads . We have great articles on the Southern Pacific Railroad, Railroad Grade Crossings: the "Safe Gate" , Union Pacific's Bailey Yard , and trains to the Powder River Basin . See our maps of the Union Pacific and find out about the Union Pacific Museum . We have an interesting article on Union Pacific streamliners . See our reference section and catch some pictures of a happy railfan couple on the Union Pacific . |
| What's a "Chicago Bypass"? |
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Why do we need a "Chicago Bypass"?
Click on any doctor above to see why. |
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Union Pacific -- the railroad established by Congress and
Abraham Lincoln to span the continent - is in the middle of a very tough period.
A 1996 merger with Southern Pacific to form the
nation's largest railroad caused what regulators call an unprecedented breakdown in rail
traffic through the heart of America that has lasted more than 10 months.
Union Pacific Corporation reported a net loss of $62 million, or $.25 per diluted share,
in the first quarter of 1998, reflecting the impact of continued congestion at its
railroad subsidiary, as well as the costs of its service recovery efforts.
In its most critical self-analysis to date, the railroad told its federal
regulators that efforts to clear up the thousands of rail cars clogging
Union Pacific's 36,000-mile system have been "inadequate" and "unacceptable."
The railroad's performance has been so poor that top corporate executives will lose their
bonuses for 1997.
In March, the railroad laid out a 30-day plan for resolving some of the most pressing difficulties, measures which include borrowing, buying and shifting 300 locomotives. But it warned that it might be forced to take "even more aggressive actions" if its plan fails to "generate substantial improvement." "These may include transferring business to other carriers and a temporary pause in shipments to allow the railroad to clear. The railroad said that the overall speed of its trains continued to drop as the number of cars within the system remained at excessively high levels. The traffic jam began in the Houston area last summer and spread across the railroad's 23-state network last fall. Union Pacific has acknowledged difficulties with its merger with Southern Pacific Corp, including problems with putting together computer systems and implementing a directional traffic system. The National Grain and Feed Association, at its annual convention, urged that the nation's railroads agree to mandatory arbitration of rate cases with their customers and that customers be allowed to switch carriers. The National Industrial Transportation League, the nation's largest shippers group, first organized a meeting of UP customers in August at which time UP's problems largely were limited to Texas. After that session, in which UP promised a prompt solution, the delays and congestion mushroomed to engulf most UP lines and those of such competing and connecting railroads as Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. UP now insists that normal service has been restored to its 36,000-mile system, with the exception of portions of Texas and Louisiana. However, UP's most recent service data has shown that delays and congestion are increasing. Meanwhile in Washington, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the influential chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, turned up the pressure on the rail industry. In a letter to Linda Morgan, chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, Sen. McCain urged the board to hold hearings into rail-industry service problems and pending mergers. "We fully support the deregulatory approach provided by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980," he wrote. But Western rail service troubles and the pending breakup of Conrail Inc. in the East "are serious issues which must be reviewed." So, too, are complaints by some small shippers who believe they are not receiving adequate service. He cited calls by some shippers for open access of rail lines. "We urge you to hold hearings" on these issues, he wrote. As the customer groups were gathering, speculation continued about the next steps by Burlington Northern-Sante Fe and UP. BNSF chief executive Robert D. Krebs spoke to the group, and UP executives made a presentation. Mr. Krebs said BNSF wants to seek regulatory intervention by the Surface Transportation Board to reopen UP's 1996 merger with Southern Pacific unless substantial progress was made on a proposal to create jointly owned track on a key Houston-New Orleans route. BNSF has maintained that quick action is needed because delays on UP tracks are blocking BNSF from meeting commitments to its shippers. On Feb. 13th, 1998, Union Pacific Railroad and The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company agreed to proceed immediately to set up a joint regional dispatching center for all of their Gulf Coast train operations, and to exchange half interests in the two pieces of the former Southern Pacific 342-mile Houston-New Orleans line now separately owned by each railroad. Additionally, both railroads will have access to all customers, including chemical, steel, gas and other companies, along the entire line, including former SP branch lines. The joint dispatching center will be located at the current UP command center in Spring, a Houston suburb. The entire former Southern Pacific Houston-New Orleans line will be dispatched by UP/BNSF employees, who will report to supervisors of both railroads at the center, as well as the Union Pacific line from Houston to Beaumont, dispatched by UP employees. The joint dispatching center will also manage and coordinate UP, BNSF, as well as Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) and Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA) lines in the Houston area. The trackage exchange is aimed at rationalizing the 1996 merger settlement agreement in which the former Southern Pacific line between Houston and New Orleans was divided between the two railroads. Currently, UP dispatches and operates the western 148 miles between Houston and Iowa Junction, near Lake Charles, Louisiana. BNSF dispatches and operates the eastern 194 miles from Iowa Junction to New Orleans. Both railroads operate through trains across the entire route. This proposal will restore the route's transportation capacity and provide for service improvements by managing the line's dispatch as a single through corridor Burlington Northern and Texas-Mexican Railroad were discussing a deal in which Texas-Mexican would become Burlington's operating agent in south Texas. The deal would help alleviate the Union Pacific problem because it would allow Burlington Northern trains to get to the Laredo without passing through Union Pacific tracks in Houston. 52 percent of all land-based shipping between Mexico and the United States passes through Laredo. Texas-Mexican is 51 percent owned by Mexican transport giant TMM. The other 49 percent is held by Kansas City Southern Railway. On February 11, Union Pacific said it would spend $570 million on capacity expansion in Texas and Louisiana and launch a study of that troubled rail operation. The railroad said in a statement the money would be used this year and next for capacity expansion, track upgrades and new facilities. Union Pacific said it was launching an intensive effort to evaluate operations and infrastructure requirements along the nearly 1,200-mile corridor running between El Paso and New Orleans and including the Houston complex. Overall the railroad would invest $2.4 billion in 1998 in its whole network, a figure close to 1997's spending. For the Union Pacific Railroad workers crowded between shifts into motel's littered break rooms, nights and weekends never arrive. And almost everyone has horror stories about their schedules. Consider the conductor who departed Houston at 8:40 p.m. on a recent Thursday. So many other trains were trying to use the same rails that his 12-hour shift, the federally allowed maximum, brought him only 80 miles, just a third of the way to Livonia, a bayou town a couple of parishes west of Baton Rouge. With no choice but to halt, the conductor was stranded more than three hours until a van came to his rescue. It took nearly five hours more to reach the motel here. Dispatched back to Houston late on Saturday morning, he arrived shortly before midnight. After a few waking hours with his wife, he was back on duty just before noon on Sunday. This time he made it closer to the Livonia rail yard, but not close enough. Stranded again, a van driver dumped him at the motel at 2:15 a.m. Monday. Even in normal times, to work on the railroad is to enter a world apart. Its schedules, culture and grimy, clangorous locales, where a slip or stumble can end a career or a life, make conductors and engineers a hidden brotherhood. It is an existence that outsiders, especially families, often cannot accept or understand. In recent weeks, Union Pacific made enough progress in clearing out its Houston rail yards that schedules for many of this area's crews improved from impossible to merely exhausting. But then clogged traffic at the Laredo, Tex., gateway to Mexico backed up trains all the way to Kansas, forcing an embargo on many shipments and 16-hour days for other crews. Union Pacific has responded to complaints over safety and service by agreeing to recruit thousands of new workers, though veterans say the inexperience of the new hires will present new risks. The railroad has also begun allowing workers to take a full 24 hours of rest after at least seven consecutive days of 12-hour-plus shifts. Another breakthrough: a company test, in the St. Louis area, of whether letting workers nap on idle trains might help them avoid nodding off when they are moving. For Union Pacific, to bend at all is unusual. With systems modeled on the military, the company has seemingly endless rule books, infraction codes and penalties, governing everything from the appropriate choreography for jumping down from a train to how closely workers can approach a running or stopped engine before inserting their earplugs. "Insubordination," or refusing a direct order, is grounds for dismissal. Pay for trainmen is about as good as blue-collar gets: usually $55,000 to $90,000 a year, including overtime, but $70,000 to more than $100,000 last year with all the extended shifts. Union Pacific led the way in using technology to direct and monitor trains, lessening the need for large crews and eliminating cabooses. By the early 1990's, labor pacts had reduced the crews on long-distance trains to just two. Nationally, railroad employment fell to 256,000 by 1996 from more than twice that in 1980, as freight increased by nearly half. For all the dislocation suffered by his company and its workers, tradition remains a common bond. A piece of track in Omaha, Neb., built in 1902 is still called 'the new cutoff.' The railroad is even famous in the movies: In 1939 - Cecil B. DeMille's motion picture, "Union Pacific", premiered in Omaha. Union Pacific survived other problems in its long history. 1873 saw a near bankruptcy and a rescue by Jay Gould. From receivership after the panic of 1893, Union Pacific saw its "golden age" under the Harriman era. UP had even once before in the early 1900's owned the Southern Pacific but was forced out by antitrust laws. A 1949 blizzard tied the road up for weeks. In this battle five men lost their lives while the company used 14,000 men, 15 rotary snow plows, 33 wedge and spreader plows and 180 bulldozers to win. The Second World War and the Depression just before it required a rebuilding of the system in the late 1940's. Although a pioneer in diesels, Union Pacific lagged in conversion largely because of the company-owned Wyoming coal supply and the monster "Big Boys" still being on line. Deferred maintenance of structures, rolling stock and signal systems had to be overcome. Over the years, Wall Street always considered Union Pacific a sleeping giant….rich in assets but slow to use them. Some brokers joked about UP as a fat old lady holding a bag of candy. UP employees are fighting back with humor that, as in the old Soviet Union and now Russia, contrasts with cheery pronouncements from above. They speak of guiding trains by the calendar, not the clock. And they joke that the Ringling Brothers circus wanted to buy the company -- "not for the railroad; they wanted the clowns running it." |
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| Union Pacific News and Current Events |
| Union Pacific News from RailServe |
| Union Pacific forum on Railroad.net |
| Official Union Pacific New Releases |
| Union Pacific News from Topix.net |
