Anyone who thinks that “Precision Scheduled Railroading” has anything to do with moving trains with “precision” doesn’t really understand what it means. It has little to do with moving trains efficiently and everything to do with maximizing the stock price.
I’ve read a lot of articles about PSR and NONE of them had the word “customer” in them. Here’s a quote from Derek Taylor of CN about the railroad’s view of what customers can do to save on demurrage charges:
“Customers can make decisions to decrease their demurrage charges by configuring their facilities to increase track capacity, improving loading or unloading times, or operating seven days a week,” Derek Taylor, vice president of CN’s Southern Region, wrote to the STB.
Allow me to explain just exactly what this means. The railroads are going back to the old way of “serving” their customers by telling them, “We know you need switched on Mondays and Thursdays, but our crews will be there on Wednesdays and Saturdays because that’s what fits our schedule.”
PSR = Pretty Sad Railroading
