Norfolk Southern moving to a Centralized Train Dispatching Center

[NW Mailing List]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 7:20 PM, Larry wrote:

It’s kind of like carrying all your eggs in one basket . Drop the basket
> and break all your eggs at the same time. For the security of this nation
> seems like a bone head move.
>

​CSX got taken over the coals when its Jacksonville dispatch center shut
down for a hurricane threat, which shut down ALL rail operations, including
commuter service in Washington, D.C. Even though the area wasn't anywhere
close to the potential hurricane, many people were impacted when they
couldn't get home in their usual manner. I believe it still took a while
for CSX to figure out there were more advantages to having dispatchers in
or close to their territory.

On one hand, given the computerization of dispatching, a division could
probably be run from just about anywhere. This may be the thinking of some
MBA who works for NS but doesn't really know railroading. He (or she)
probably looked at the seniority list and salaries of dispatchers, decided
that anyone who could use a computer could do the job, and determined that
many of the current dispatchers won't be interested in pulling up roots and
moving to Atlanta. With all the open spots, lower-wage entry-level people
could be hired locally (avoiding moving costs) and money would be saved.
Chaos may ensue because the new people don't know the nuances of various
local conditions (try not to stop trains at location X because it is tough
to start again, watch out for this curve in bad weather, never block this
grade crossing unless it is a true emergency, etc.), but those costs will
fall to another part of the budget while the MBA gets an award for reducing
the cost of dispatching.

Given the security issues of today, "drop in" visits to a dispatcher are
probably impossible. I do remember visiting the Radford Division dispatch
office when it was still in the GOB (wish I had taken more pictures), the
new dispatch office after it had been moved to Kimball Ave., the new
Pocahontas office not long after it went to computers (but still had the
large display wall), and the P&LE dispatch office in a corner of Station
Square in the old passenger station (I do have a set of slides of that
operation). Sad that an old connection between the railroad and the local
community is less and less accessible.

Bruce in Blacksburg
  ​
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