Word: menke
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Railroads," says Louis W. Menk, "are a growth industry." As chairman of Burlington Northern Inc., the nation's biggest railroad, he might be guilty of some slight bias, but his opinion is widely shared in financial circles. The oil shortage has made coal critically important as an alternative energy source, and most coal moves by rail. Shippers of other goods are beginning to realize that freight trains consume only about one-fourth as much energy per ton-mile as trucks do. And the Nixon Administration's newly proposed Transportation Improvement Act would protect railroads from discriminatory local taxation...
...railroad better illustrates both the potential and the problems of cashing in on it than Menk's Burlington Northern. It was formed four years ago by the merger of two Minnesota-based railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, and two smaller lines they controlled jointly. The company's distinctive green cars now run over more than 25,000 miles of track from Chicago to Vancouver, British Columbia...
...made much money out of this bonanza. Operating revenues have climbed 31% since the merger, to $1.3 billion last year and net operating income has jumped 74%, to $108 million. But the firm's railroad operations are still only marginally profitable. Since the merger, Menk has managed to reduce the firm's payroll by 8% and retire 8,000 obsolete cars. But total labor costs have gone up 48%, and Burlington Northern has lacked the capital to buy enough new equipment to handle increased traffic. Last year the company's own Plum Creek Lumber Co., in Montana...
...rules. There were 1,400 intercity passenger trains in 1958; now there are only 488. Every road in the U.S. is out to emulate the half a dozen carriers, from the Boston and Maine to the Frisco, that have succeeded in eliminating passenger business entirely. President Louis W. Menk of Northern Pacific might have been speaking for the industry in November when he told a House committee: "I make no mistake about it. I want...