Reflections and Priorities for the New Year

Sean Ireland

Good morning, I’ll tell you, it’s a bit surreal to realize we've only got three days left in 2025. Kinda wild, isn’t it? As I sat down to prep this week’s message, I found myself thinking about where we started this year and all the ground we’ve covered together. Look, nobody’s gonna say it was an easy ride. But what stands out for me—honestly, what makes me proudest—is how you all came together, across departments, to get us through a pretty intense year.

Sean Ireland

Now, just think back to those months of rerouting around the Howard Street Tunnel outage in Baltimore. Eight months! Still blows my mind a bit. I know, we’ve touched on the planning and night-and-day effort behind that in previous episodes—remember when we talked about unexpected events and adapting on the fly? This was it, on a huge scale. Dispatchers, field crews, maintenance, customer service—everybody pulled in the same direction. And that same can-do attitude carried over into the Cumberland flat switching terminal rebuild. If you were part of that project, you know rebuilding while keeping operations rolling is tougher than it sounds. Where was I? Oh, right: the RCO—Remote Control Operations—rollout up in New England. Brand new technology for a lot of folks, and, yeah, it came with the usual growing pains, but you leaned into training and adaptation.

Sean Ireland

So, what made the difference? I genuinely think it was the collaboration. It wasn’t just one department carrying the load. It was open lines of communication, being honest when things weren’t working, and stepping up to lend a hand outside your own area. Whenever outage reroutes or infrastructure rebuilds threatened our network fluidity, I watched teams rally—breaking out of silos, finding workarounds, and, honestly, just refusing to let disruption win. If you’ve got thoughts about specific strategies that helped—maybe something we can bottle up and use again—let me know, because those lessons are how we keep improving.

Sean Ireland

All right, now, let’s talk safety—because you know me, I can’t help circling back to it, and for good reason. This year, adopting that blended approach paid off. I mean, over 30% reduction in personal injuries, thanks to the big push on ERDs—Exposure Reduction Discussions—and JSBs, our Job Safety Briefings. That took a lot of buy-in, and I sincerely appreciate you all for making safety personal, not just something you heard about in a meeting.

Sean Ireland

But, and there’s always a ‘but’, right? In the first half, while injuries dropped, we did see a spike in human factor incidents. We’d get one area nailed down, but maybe let up a bit on things like operational testing. That’s just being real. The lesson there? It’s gotta be a balance. I think we got it back under control in the second half—remember those 20-plus days in August without a single human factor incident? That’s no accident! That’s teams keeping briefings sharp, asking the tough questions during shove moves, and making sure procedures are being followed even when the weather turns harsh.

Sean Ireland

I do wanna recognize the folks leading the charge on this: safety leaders in every zone—Chad up in New England, Ryan in the North, Hayden out at Selkirk, Shane for Central East, Alex in Central West, and Michael covering the South. You’re pushing the blended approach forward, owning operational testing, and setting the standard. The real challenge going into 2026? It’s consistency—especially with winter hazards rolling in. Let's keep empowering everyone to speak up, double-check securements, and stick with the blended methods. If anyone’s got thoughts on how we can keep things sharp even when routines start to slip, I’m all ears.

Sean Ireland

So, looking down the tracks at 2026, two words come straight to mind: control and commitment. Cost management isn’t just a box to check—it’s gonna be one of our biggest challenges. We’ve made progress, yeah, but, let’s face it, we can always do better with claims, overtime, and one card spending. This isn’t just about cutting for the sake of cutting. It’s about spending smarter, making sure every dollar supports safety and service, and, yeah, making sure receipts are attached where they’re supposed to be.

Sean Ireland

On the service side, I have to give credit where it’s due. Peak UPS season—another success, thanks to genuine daily focus and teamwork. But, post-peak, it’s back to normal ops, and that means we can’t let up. Routine execution is where our reputation is built. We absolutely cannot have consecutive missed switches with customers, especially in the winter. Communication is huge, especially when weather delays are in play. I might be sounding like a broken record, but daily basics matter more right now than at any other point in the year.

Sean Ireland

Alright, to wrap this up, I’d love to hear from you—what expense controls have you seen really make a difference at your terminal or in your role? Same for service practices that keep things running, even when mother nature’s not on our side. Let’s keep sharing what works. We’ll talk more on our regional safety call this Wednesday, and with the Q4 townhall coming up, there’ll be plenty of chances to keep the conversation rolling. That’s it for this week’s message—thanks, as always, for bringing your A-game. Happy New Year, team—let’s get after it in 2026.