April Safety Gains, Cost Control, and a Stronger Weekly Push

Sean Ireland

Good Morning. We are 10 days into May, staring at the halfway point of Q2, and this is where the numbers either sharpen your focus or they let you drift -- and drift is how you get beat.

Sean Ireland

Happy Mother’s Day. I wanna say that up front, and I also wanna say this plainly: April showed improvement in safety compared to 2025, and that matters. We should recognize progress when we earn it. But let’s not pat ourselves on the back too long, because we still had too many human factor and reportable incidents, and the main contributors were not mysterious. They were shove moves and train handling.

Sean Ireland

That’s the tension in the report. Better than before? Yes. Good enough? No. And if you’re listening to this thinking, well, operations is complicated, every day’s different, things happen -- sure, of course they do. I run a railroad too, I get it. But much of what hit us in April sits inside our control if we’re disciplined enough to call it what it is.

Sean Ireland

On the cost side, we missed budget slightly. Not wildly, not catastrophically, but enough that it needs attention. The drivers were overtime, extra starts, and MSE spending in certain zones. Again, those aren’t abstract line items. Those are the result of process, execution, and follow-through in the field.

Sean Ireland

And this is where I get pretty direct. We can shut down trucks instead of letting them sit there idling and burning fuel for no reason. We can reduce overtime by tightening our processes and tightening field execution. We can limit recrews and extra starts by controlling ITD and making sure line-of-road work events stay within planned timelines. None of that is theory. That is blocking and tackling. That is leaders staying engaged on the things that ACTUALLY move the result.

Sean Ireland

As we move deeper into May, with warmer weather and summer vacation season coming at us, complacency is the risk. It always is. People get comfortable, distractions go up, routines shift, and suddenly the basics start slipping. We cannot let that happen. We have to drive safety, cost, and service -- in that order -- because we own the processes that drive the result.

Sean Ireland

Safety starts with being engaged, motivated, and acting as change agents every single day. Cost means looking at every process and procedure and asking, where can we do this better, cleaner, with less waste? And service -- well, service is why we’re in business. If the customer doesn’t get what we committed to deliver, the rest of the conversation gets pretty short.

Sean Ireland

It sounds simple, and in one sense it is simple. But simple does not mean easy. Every day throws a new wrinkle at you. A job changes, a plan slips, somebody’s covering an assignment they don’t normally protect, weather changes, volume moves around. That’s why leadership consistency matters so much. We’ve gotta bring the same mindset every day -- coaching, leading, refining the process -- so the results take care of themselves.

Sean Ireland

So here’s the push for this week, and I want it to be practical. On Wednesday next week, we have focus engagement day. One MTO from each zone will look at downloads and report out on the Regional Safety Call. The rest of the team will focus on switching operations. That means RCO processes, specifically logbooks, zone practices, kicking cars no more than three cars at a time, securement to enable kicking of cars, kicking cars on tangent track, and being positioned outside and on the point of locomotives -- not in the cab.

Sean Ireland

This goes into effect tomorrow at 1800 and runs through next Friday at 1800. That window matters. I don’t want this treated like a nice note or a passing reminder. I want it executed.

Sean Ireland

Job safety briefings need to be sharp. Weather is warming up, so hydration has to be part of the conversation. Mother’s Day weekend brings distractions. We’ll have book-off impacts. We’ll have people working assignments they do not normally protect. That is EXACTLY when leaders have to slow down enough to ask the right questions. And I mean open-ended questions -- not talking at our people, not giving a speech at the ballast line. Ask questions, then listen. Drive safety ownership back to the employee.

Sean Ireland

If all we’re doing is checking the box and hearing ourselves talk, we’re missing the point. Exposure Reduction Discussions this week are to be performed on shove events. Operational testing is straightforward: one switch tag test per shift, per day, and that test is to be performed on shove moves. Assistant Superintendents are to perform two yardmaster tests this week. Specific, measurable, no confusion.

Sean Ireland

And I do want to recognize the Regional Zone Safety leaders for last week: New England, Nate Boyd. Hudson Zone, William McAllister. Northern Zone, Manny Denis. Central East, Shawn Grimm. Central West, Michael Crocker. Southern Zone, Donavan Boyles. Good work there -- now let’s build on it.

Sean Ireland

Cost is next, and honestly some of this is just common sense. When we are parked, shut the truck down. Gas prices are up. We need to conserve. I’ll be sending out an email with a report of the top idling trucks on the region, so this one’s not gonna hide in the weeds. Recrews and extra locals and yards -- huge push this week to drive those down. Car hire, we’re doing another deep dive into opportunities to reduce the overall number. MSE spending, we need to review what we’re putting on our one card and what we’re ordering for supplies and make sure everybody is looking for opportunities.

Sean Ireland

Take a hard look at the small stuff too, because the small stuff adds up fast. Garbage bins -- we should only need a few, not two or three together. ICE machines -- one needed at each area, no need for doubles. Claims have increased these last few weeks, and our big opportunity is code 75s. That is a place where attention and discipline will pay us back quickly.

Sean Ireland

Now here’s where service ties right back to everything I just said. Safety impacts service. Cost impacts service. Execution impacts service. Our weekly goal on CSD is 95 percent. Last week we were at 93 percent. So work ahead this week. Don’t wait for the miss to show up and then chase it. See it early, act early, protect the plan.

Sean Ireland

A few regional updates to close us out. Regional Safety Call is this Wednesday. The Richmond Long Pool was reactivated yesterday. That will take trains long pool from Richmond to Cumberland and Philadelphia, and it will also reduce TE and code 75 claims. After two years, the Howard Street Tunnel clearance project is completed. It’s good to see that one done and to allow double-stacked intermodal trains through Baltimore. And we have tie teams in and around Cumberland Terminal and the Mountain Subs this week, with one after to complete their work. That’s the work in front of us -- stay engaged, stay sharp, and go execute.