I find it amazing how the railroad industry operating philosophy "pendulum" swings back and forth.
Today the prime directive is long trains and PSR. Not that many years ago the prime directive was short trains and good customer service. And before that it was the long train/save crew costs mantra again. Today the main focus is on PSR (Pretty Sad Railroading), which focuses on improving value for the stockholders, not serving the customers. Yeah...what do we need them for? 
I've read dozens of white papers and media articles on PSR. None of them said a word about customers. The entire focus of PSR is on improving value for stockholders. However, the "improvements" instituted with PSR will yield only short-term stockholder value. Because there is no focus at all within PSR for serving customers, this is eventually going to backfire on the railroads. Without customers, there is no business. With no business, there is no value for stockholders. The way the railroads are treating customers now, they will soon begin losing business (again) to trucks. When the business drops to critical mass, the focus will once again change back to short trains and refocused customer service. They never learn...
When an industry - any industry - turns its view inward to focus on serving their stockholders instead of serving their customers, it's the beginning of a death spiral.
