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MARCH 27, 1998 |
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EASTERN RAILROAD NEWS
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Insourcing Team adopts Conrail practices for the benefit of the new NS: NS' Insourcing team and Conrail are working together to develop new methods for handling insourcing -- the use of company resources for the production of goods and services for sale, such as to other railroads.
The heart of the insourcing project is a mainframe shop order system designed to interact with other departments and provide a history of all accounting transactions associated with insourced activities at major shops. Several years ago, Conrail developed its own insourcing system. Conrail's experience provides NS team members with valuable insight as they begin to develop their own shop order system and integrate Conrail's insourcing activities into the mechanical and accounting systems.
NS' Insourcing team is comprised of 11 people and led by Woody Chilcoat, director of field operations, Roanoke. It is one of NS' many implementation teams, departments and individuals interacting with Conrail people and adopting Conrail practices for the benefit of the new NS.
The Next Step
Implementation Countdown
69 days
until STB hears oral arguments, June 4, 1998
73
days until STB votes on application, June 8, 1998
118 days until
STB publishes its written decision, July 23, 1998
148 days until
the effective date of the STB decision and the Control Date, Aug. 22, 1998
158 days until
"Day 1," the hypothetical Closing Date for NS planning purposes, Sept.
1, 1998
Notable
NS' Vice President Nancy Fleischman and Assistant Vice President Don O'Brian spoke in February with Conrail's Chris Wagner, executive director-Corporate Communications, in a videotaped interview for distribution to Conrail employees.
Fleischman and O'Brian answered questions about "Day 1," Shared Assets Areas, corporate culture and safety. "Our company is very people oriented," said Fleischman. "Our safety program is focused around people. It's not a theory. It's not, contrary to myth, a punitive program. Safety is for the protection of employees, not for the punishment of employees."
Quotable
"Every NS department is encouraged to look carefully at counterpart Conrail business processes. For example, Conrail regularly uses insourcing at its shops and other facilities. One NS team is working with Conrail to develop a common methodology to handle insourcing on the new NS. All these activities help with integration of NS and Conrail cultures as well as operations. Establishing relationships and understanding between current and new NS people will reduce obstacles to safe, successful implementation." - Steve Eisenach, director-Strategic Planning, to the Standing Committee on Rail Transportation, American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials, March 24.
Conrail Heritage
The ancestor of all railroad station restaurants in America was the pie or cake stand, located on the center of a terminal platform. The Pennsylvania Railroad, a Conrail predecessor line, built the first such stand on the platform of its Harrisburg passenger station in 1837. As the name implied, the stand stocked a variety of cakes and pies, along with stick-candy, licorice, root beer and lemon mineral water. Also on hand were "half-Spanish" and "common" cigars, selling four for a penny. - Norfolk Southern
Please check this location daily, as new information will be posted, as it becomes available. If you have news to report or information regarding railroads in the Eastern United States, please send e-mail to Kevin Burkholder at KBurkholder@psghs.edu |