Monday, November 5, 2018
NS Dispatching Desks Moved to Atlanta
Following the lead of CSX consolidating all of it's dispatchers in Jacksonville, NS is moving all of it's dispatchers to Atlanta. This will result in the closure of the Conrail era Harrisburg office on Interstate Drive as well as the Fort Wayne office. NS will also be re-adjusting a number of territories to coincide with the move because one might as well have one period of screwed up service instead of two.
Now I previously discussed this in the context of CSX which first consolidated it's dispatching offices and then unconsolidated them only to re-consolidate them again. The benefits of consolidation are reducing manpower requirements with a single extra board, reducing overhead and placing operations next to management. Downsides are reduced territory familiarity and vulnerability to natural disasters, including mild snow storms which frequently paralyze Atlanta. An ancillary benefit is forcing higher paid veteran workers who are tied to a specific area to quit or retire.
In the case of NS they are actually moving all of their corporate offices too Atlanta with the corporate HQ making the move from Norfolk, VA. You might recall a post I made about the demolition of the Terminal South interlocking tower in Atlanta. Well this was to clear the space for the construction of the new NS HQ, which will at least be located vaguely near some railroad tracks. Will NS decide to reverse the decision at some point? Probably, new management always needs to do something different and after a couple snow storms or hurricanes snarl freight traffic, some institutional investor might complain loudly enough. At least for now everyone is jumping on the consolidation bandwagon.
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This is a timely post. I've been monitoring the scanner for the eastern end of the Harrisburg Line and the Morrisville Line for a few months and this has been handled up until yesterday (Monday Nov. 12) by the Buffalo Mainline Dispatcher. Starting yesterday I mostly heard new voices identified as the "Riverline" dispatcher, although from time to time I heard the Buffalo Mainline dispatcher handle calls; One local job even got confused which dispatcher to call when clearing up at Swedland. I wonder what this Riverline DS's territory covers, the Buffalo Mainline is/was not exactly near this territory.
ReplyDeleteOn another note I heard from a recently retired Assistant Chief Dispatcher from the now relocated CSX Baltimore Dispatching Office (the "B" desks) that there were often communication issues between adjacent Offices, such as phones not being answered or even ignored. This problem was confirmed yesterdaywhen the NS Altoona East dispatcher was unable to relay some information about an eastbound train to the Harrisburg Terminal dispatcher since the latter was not answering the phone. If folks are co-located they can be "face to faced" to get a problem resolved. It's clear a trade-off. BTW the ACD also mentioned that there are physically remote locations that have dispatching equipment available to take over the central location becomes disabled, mitigating a total loss of control in case of disaster.
Used to know a dispatcher in the Baltimore office and it was common to have Road days where they would head out and take a cab ride over their territory to stay familiar with it and the operating conditions. Not sure that will be possible when most such trips would require a plane ticket and per diem.
DeleteThe move might or might not turn out to be smart, but snow isn't really a concern. As a former resident I can testify that ice (freezing rain) is more likely to tie up the city than snow. Yankees don't drive well on ice, either. Atlanta keeps its airport running well despite just about everything. Anyway, wherever the NS dispatching center is built, it won't be far from MARTA.
ReplyDeleteActually the new HQ will be located in Midtown, nowhere near the demolished interlocking tower.
ReplyDelete