Defy Conventional Wisdom for Unconventional Results

Sez who? is the unconventional response of Bill Frederick, customer service representative and president of the Arizona & California Railroad (AZRC), where carefully trained, highly- motivated railroad neophytes like secretary-turned-engineer Patty Hamilton are driving trains and throwing switches -- and doing it superbly.

Conventional wisdom says that after the worst flood since the fifteenth century has taken a two-mile bite out of your track and put a total of 12 miles underwater (leaving you with mountains of mud to move), there's no way you can get the trains running again in less than three months.

Just you watch us, is the unconventional response of Copper Basin Railway's L. S. "Jake" Jacobson. With a copper mine and its community depending on the railroad for their livelihood, Jake had the track cleared and the roadbed rebuilt in an incredible fourteen days.

These approaches fly in the face of conventional wisdom and yield unconventional benefits in the form of dedicated employees from an unexpected labor pool on the one hand and minimal disruption of operations on the other. The managers of both lines have something in common: each put in more than twenty years with a Class I; each regards "can't" as a four-letter word; and each surrounds himself with talented people, most of whom have no railroad background -- and hence no fund of conventional railroad wisdom whatsoever.

Now, what if you take this unconventional mindset, this sez who? or just you watch us attitude and turn it to your marketing efforts? Here are just a few ways the AZRC -- and other short lines around the country -- are turning conventional wisdoms (CW for short) upside down.

• CW: "You can't make any money as a bridge carrier." One of the reasons the new owners of the AZRC got the property from Santa Fe in the first place was that other potential buyers were leery of buying what was essentially a bridge from one Santa Fe line to another. Conventional wisdom says the bridge traffic would move over Santa Fe track once the line had been sold. But Frederick and his can-do team kept service levels up and rates down to the point that Santa Fe continues to move much of this traffic over the Arizona & California bridge -- and they're finding new shippers along the line, as well.
• CW: "A short line is too small to carry any clout with governments." It ain't necessarily so, and Bill Frederick's line proves it again. In their efforts to encourage a major mill for recycled papers to site on their line, ARZC staffers worked closely with Parker, Arizona town manager George Kruze in lobbying the Arizona legislature to amend property taxes, offering relief to communities engaged in recycling activities. This tax relief provides additional incentive for the ARZC site. As Frederick says, "To be successful in economic development, you have to work with every level of government."

  This goes for rehabilitation assistance as well, where cooperation among local, state, and federal authorities is often what it takes to get railroads their share of available government funds.

• CW: "You can't run an intermodal operation on a short line." Conventional wisdom says the nearest Class I ramp will be too close for a short line's intermodal operation to be financially viable. As a rule, there's a lot of truth to that. Still, there are times when unconventional wisdom will uncover an intermodal niche for a feeder line.

  In the ARZC's case, a former Santa Fe circus ramp for loading vegetables in Blythe, California became a mechanical COFC facility loading compressed hay to support Japan's beef industry. Up and running this spring, the facility is expected to handle 50 containers a week.

  On the other coast, the Providence & Worcester is making hay from a variety of products, running a U.S. Customs-bonded, fully- secured intermodal terminal in Worcester, Massachusetts serving major steamship lines and handling goods from the Pacific Rim destined for the Boston market.

• CW: "You can't run short-haul short-unit trains." But the Aberdeen Carolina & Western runs a weekly 10-car soymeal train to Perdue's feed mill in Candor, North Carolina, and does it at a profit.
• CW: "You can't compete with a Class I in industrial development work." These days, more and more Class Is are working in partnership with their short lines in industrial development to the benefit of both. Conrail worked closely with the northern New Jersey Morristown & Erie line, for exmaple, to help attract a 1,000,000 square foot distribution center; and Norfolk Southern is exploring ways to work collaboratively with the Aberdeen Carolina & Western in marketing some of the short line's industrial development sites. Meanwhile, back on the AZRC, to hear the Santa Fe reps talk about the short line you'd think they were on Bill Frederick's payroll.

Conventional wisdom certainly does not always work for marketing in the short line environment. After all, if conventional wisdom could make a profit on those short lines, the Class Is would never have spun them off in the first place. So try flying in the face of conventional wisdom -- and watch your short line soar.

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