Canadian Pacific unveils new website to promote NS merger proposal

Canadian Pacific yesterday launched a new website that highlights what the Class I says would be the benefits of its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern Corp.

The website provides details of CP’s proposal, along with details of its next steps in the effort to acquire NS, according to a CP press release.

CP described the merger as a “pro-customer, end-to-end, competition-enhancing business combination proposal.”

On Tuesday, CP notified NS of its intent to submit a resolution to NS shareholders to ask the NS board to “engage in good faith discussions” with CP regarding the Class I’s proposed takeover of NS. The notification appeared to signal that CP dropped the proxy-fight strategy for its proposed acquisition.

The shareholder resolution — which would be voted on at the NS annual meeting later this year — asks NS shareholders to formally vote “in favor of what they have been saying to CP anecdotally for months,” CP said.

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MTA falling behind on Second Avenue Subway, consultant says

The MTA is falling further behind on the Second Avenue Subway project, which is slated to open in December this year, according to independent consulting company McKissack.

The project, which will add a much-needed new subway route on the Upper East Side, is delayed in installing power underground, which is needed to start tests for the new stations.

The MTA said it will use temporary power so tests can start earlier, and that it is creating a new accelerated schedule to catch up on construction work and finish the line by the end of the year.

“We recommend that the schedule should be detailed with weekly checkpoints as we go forward in our last year, so we can keep up to date with any issues that are being developed,” said consultant Kent Haggis. His company McKissack was hired by the MTA to monitor the project.

The Nos. 4, 5 and 6 on the Lexington Avenue lines have the highest ridership of any train line in the country. The MTA expects the Second Avenue Subway to give the route significant relief.

By Rebecca Harshbarger   rebecca.harshbarger@amny.com

Runaway Railcar Damages Utica, NY Union Station

Engineers and others were trying to determine how much damage was done to Union Station a day after a rail car careening through the city Tuesday evening damaged a display steam engine and  the tower that supports the station’s pedestrian bridge near the tracks.

A rail car somehow got away from where it should have been and went down Schuyler Street before hitting the old locomotive, said Melanie Boyer, a spokeswoman for the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.

The rail car, which was carrying plastic pellets, was traveling on the New York, Susquehanna and Western’s line, which connects to a CSX line.

When the runaway train car hit the antique locomotive, the stationary train display crashed into Union Station near a pedestrian bridge that is part of the building, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reported. A large section of a station wall appeared to have been broken off.

No one was in the part of the building that got hit and no direct injuries from the crash were reported.

Harry Lenz couldn’t believe it when he heard a runaway rail car had made its way through the city early Tuesday evening and slammed into a 102-year-old, 80 ton steam engine on display at Union Station.

“When I saw this happen on the (news) on Tuesday, I was stunned and dumbfounded because this has been a labor of love for a lot of the rail historians here in Utica,” said Lenz, who is president of the Utica & Mohawk Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, which owns the locomotive. “I’ve spent countless hours working on it and trying to restore it. It’s a big attraction to anyone that’s involved with railroad history.”

Lenz said it isn’t known how badly the engine is damaged because part of it is still in the tower that supports the station’s pedestrian bridge near the tracks. It is, however, “significantly damaged just from a casual perusal of the locomotive,” he said.

“A railroad locomotive that’s 100 years old is unique,” he said. “You don’t find part for it so we have to take parts and renew them, refurbish them and replace them on the locomotive. Lots of money’s been put into it and lots of man-hours and it’s a shame to say that some of the people that were very active have passed on in the last 15 years that were very involved with the steam locomotive.”

Built in 1913, the engine was purchased by the society’s local chapter in 1999 and put on display at Union Station shortly later, Lenz said.

Officials are investigating whether a parked rail car was tampered with when it was set in motion and careened through the city before causing structural damage at Utica’s Union Station.

“It appears the brake lever was released by someone, we’re not sure who, manually,” Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said Tuesday evening. “It appears this was not something that just happened on its own.”

The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway car – which was carrying plastic pellets – was parked near the Burrstone Road bridge off the North-South Arterial.

Picente said once released, the train car’s momentum caused it to drive down the tracks, hit a car at the Schuyler Street intersection, and ultimately bump a display steam engine into Union Station.

Utica emergency units and engineers will be investigating Wednesday who caused the accident – and how the damage to Union Station will affect its structural integrity.

“That’s my main concern right now,” Picente said about an hour after the incident. “There’s so much structural damage, we’re concerned the tunnel area could fall down.”

See more about railroads in Utica

 

 

Why CIOs Are Losing Control of Technology

The consumerization of IT has made it easy and, in many cases, practical for business departments to bypass IT in order to pick and choose the tech they prefer.

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CIOs give themselves and their employees high marks for delivering upon needed business outcomes, but they also admit that they’re losing control over significant tech purchase decisions to the business side, according to a recent survey from Logicalis US. More than ever, finding reveal, line-of-business (LOB) managers circumvent CIOs and tech employees in acquiring tech apps and solutions, thus cultivating a shadow IT culture. This creates issues with respect to both tech governance and security assurance, and CIOs now feel pressured to transform their roles from that of technologist to what’s emerging as “internal service provider” to counter shadow IT. “When you analyze the reasons shadow IT exists,” said Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis US, “it’s clear that LOB executives are simply looking for better, faster access to IT services; they want an at-work experience that emulates the on-demand services they have access to in their consumer lives. The consumerization of IT and the widespread availability of as-a-service cloud options has, therefore, made it both easy and, in many cases, practical to bypass the IT department.” Nearly 425 global CIOs and IT directors took part in the research. –

66% said they control more than half of IT purchase decision-making, down from 72% of CIOs who claimed this level of control in 2014. –

End-Around

90% said they are bypassed by line-of-business (LOB) colleagues at least “occasionally” in the acquiring of tech apps/solutions, and 31% say they are bypassed “often,” “very often” or “most of the time.”

How CIOs Spend Their Day

Engaging with LOB managers: 24%, Dealing with legacy/historical IT support issues: 21%, Pursuing IT strategy and planning: 21%, Scoping and provisioning new IT services: 18%

Top Tech Trends for Driving Business Innovation

Analytics: 63%, Mobility: 62%, Cloud: 47%, Social media, social tech: 37%

Biggest Benefits of Analytics/Business Intelligence (BI)

Getting real-time information: 48%, Acquiring information related to well-defined business metrics: 48%, Improving operational efficiencies: 47%, Delivering information in visual formats: 42%, Conducting predictive analysis: 30%

Business Bottlenecks, Part I

47% of CIOs said a lack of budget presents a significant barrier in implementing highly effective business analytics/BI solutions, while 40% cite a lack of time to do so.

Business Bottlenecks, Part II

37% said solution complexities create significant barriers in the pursuit of business analytics/BI, and 35% said a lack of expertise does.

68% said their organization has either adopted or will adopt service-defined tech, such as the service-defined network and service-defined data center.

Nearly half said at least 30% of their organization’s technologies are provided by external service providers.