Chanda Seabrook спросил 2 года назад
The Canadian National Railway (CN) — A Brief History
In recent years, CN has experienced some of the most challenging times in its history. This was due to a variety of factors such as a pandemic that led to a decrease in traffic and financial losses.
Other factors included a loss of trade with Japan and decreased grain trade. To combat these issues, CN invested heavily in its infrastructure.
What is CN?
CN is a major railroad system in North America. It is a private firm that manages and maintains rail lines in Canada and the United States, with a specialization in freight transportation of essential materials like iron ore and grain. It also transports passenger trains, such as a popular cross-Canada train called Via Rail.
The company was founded in 1918 through the nationalization of two large railroads, Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk. It was an official Crown corporation for 78 consecutive years until it was privatized in the year 1995. As a Crown corporation, CN grew rapidly and expanded in a direction that was strategic for canadian National Railway rad north-south in the U.S. In some areas it was in competition with its Canadian National Railway Rad rival CPR such as in Central Canada before the development of a road network that was extensive.
Through its time, CN was a leader in research and development into railway safety systems and logistics management. It was also a leader in the implementation of technological advancements, such as radio-control switching for locomotives within yards, that cut the number of yard workers required. Despite its achievements, CN was still struggling financially due to other issues that affected the industry.
CN was also challenged by competition from road transport, particularly in rural areas where its line networks were replaced by local bus services. During this period, CN trimmed its budget by closing a number of money-losing branch lines. This included the entire line network in Newfoundland where passenger services on the mainline were shut down in 1969 as in a number of CN’s branch lines throughout Nova Scotia, Southern Ontario and the Prairie provinces as well as British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
The CN’s History
In 1918 the company was founded through the merger of several railways owned by the government. By 1923, CN was operating the largest railway system in Canada. In the midst of the economic slump of the 1930s, passenger traffic fell dramatically as motorists and airplanes increased their popularity. CN had thousands of kilometres worth of deteriorating branches to cut in order to make money. It also ended the Caribou passenger train, which ran on Newfoundland narrow gauge lines. In its place, it launched buses, dubbed the CN Roadcruiser. It was directly competing with mainline passenger trains.
In the 1970s, CN rationalized its network. It combined all of its freight lines to form an east-west core presence, connecting Halifax and Toronto with Chicago and Vancouver. CN also removed its steamships and purchased the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). IC enabled the company to expand its network north and south, into the central region of the United States with lines between Vancouver Canada and Churchill Manitoba Canada.
In the 1980s CN privatized. The federal government kept an enormous stake, but the company divested itself of several subsidiaries that required substantial subsidies. They included CN Marine, which was changed to Marine Atlantic, and CN’s money-losing Newfoundland operations, which were merged into a separate subsidiary called Terra Transport. Also divested were a number of CN real estate properties which included the CN Tower in Toronto. The company has also changed its name to CN. Some critics believe that this is a plan to distance itself from Canada.
The Management of CN
As it grew and diversified it was able to become a leading transporter and also a trade enabler. As of 2020, CN is operating an 18,600-mile system that safely transports more than 300 million tons of cargo each year. Additionally, CN is committed to programs that promote social accountability and environmental stewardship.
In the 1970s, CN began to aggressively acquire other railway companies to increase its market share and profit. The company also began to restructure thousands of miles of railway lines in Canada and often left nothing but beds of gravel where the rails once stood. The policies of the Canadian government and the belief that these lines were no longer necessary due to the fact that traffic was diverted to road networks was responsible for this.
CN campaigned for changes to the laws governing labour that helped it during this time. It introduced a number of eyebrow-raising changes to worker conditions which included new restrictions on flexible time and longer working hours and also the threat of massive permanent layoffs.
CN has made numerous improvements in recent years to its method of tracking and managing freight. It has emerged as an industry pioneer in the use of radio-control to switch locomotives in yards, which has decreased the number of yard workers required. This has resulted in significant cost savings for CN. In 2022, CN announced that Helen Levis was joining the company as Vice-President for Strategy. She was previously employed by the Boston Consulting Group in the field of Industrial Goods, where she directed strategic initiatives that focused on driving growth and value.
The Culture department at CN
CN had a culture that valued placating employees and placing a high value on maintaining peace enforcers of rules. That had to change. Harrison was able to turn the business around and take it from being the worst in its class to being a leader in the industry. He ensured that trains were on time and notified any employee, no matter what level they were at and if the monitor in his office showed that there was a problem. According to the former CN executive and minority shareholder supporter Lawrence Kaufman, that was not always appreciated.
The CEO also formulated Five Guiding Principles, which gave everyone a clear picture of the direction the business was heading and a way to discuss the business. These principles were Service Cost Control, Asset Utilization, Safety and People. It was evident that if an organization focused on these principles it would not only beat their competitors, but also beat them.
The UP routing card had instructions for the end-of train installation of tank car UTLX 37655 that was scheduled to be repaired at a home shop due to cracks in the A stub sill. The instructions remained with the car until it was moved to Canada on two subsequent CN trains. Then, when it was moved to a track at Symington yard, CN’s computerized Service Reliability Strategy (SRS) system failed to electronically identify the car with «Do not hump» instructions.
