Ed/Steve,
What Ed proposes has already happened and is happening
right now.
BN spun off resources and left the Railroad with the debt.
In fact, in a lot of cases, Glacier Park Corp. actually
owns land that one would normally consider "right-of-way".
They manage it as "real estate" and do not even consider
the transportation usage.
I actually saw a property disposal map of Prairie Du Chien
that included parcels that were occupied by active trackage.
At North La Crosse Glacier Park owns most of the land between
the New Main Line and the area to the West where the houses
start. The "winter only" cement business off the Passenger
Main was driven away by Glacier Park's lease price increase.
For some reason they were more accommodating about NSP's pole
yard and left it be. The cement company did look at the
property inside the South leg of the "wye that is not a wye"
but decided that they did not want all the buildings and the
property taxes that went with them.
The long-term, and very expensive, fuel removal from the
ground water in that general area is being paid for by
the Railroad even though they no longer have title to the
property.
In the current day BNSF has decided to use Free Cash Flow
to fund a stock re-purchase plan that only serves to enhance
the value of the stock. This money could be used to provide
service to the Customers that the Marketing Department has
been so successful at attracting but it is not. The "growth"
that the investors should have in a Company's value is being
artificially enhanced by a "get rich quick" scheme that does
nothing to address the long term prospects for growth and
increases in Operating Income.
Another example is the purchase of locomotives in order to
take advantage of current accelerated deprecation tax laws.
You are borrowing from tomorrow to enhance the revenue of
today. If this legislation is not renewed by Congress at
the end of 2004 it will be over. Will any new locomotives
be purchased in 2005? I really doubt it. The normal
stretching out of the depreciation cycle has already been
damaged and it's absence will have an effect on the bottom
line in the future.
The VLBG
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed DeRouin
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 15 January, 2004 13:19
Subject: [CBQ] Re: pocket cal's
Steve:
Not sure if the accountants are to blame. The joy of work in the
corporate world has been wrung out by the increasing efficency
created by the workahohlic mentality and technology. The
acountant only does what the boss tells him/her to do.
This seems to be true only in this country. Europeans laugh at
the US work ethic.
Good wiill?? I have heard that term before, but only in the
historical sense. Let me see if I can create an example. Ok, how
about this, suppose a major US rail transportation provider could
not manage its core business, but decided to create a revenue
stream from hobbists. No, that would not work, it is too
unbelievable.....
Ed
-- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Steven Holding" <s.holding@c...>
wrote:
> Ed
>
> Your are right on the cost containment issue but somewhere
the sense of good
> PR, and Good Will which use to be found in business has
gone out the window
> with the bean counters
> sjh
> ----- Original Message -----
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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