Railroad bullish on Maine
In a BDN article on the state of freight railroads in Maine, Christopher Cousins highlighted a few of the many obstacles that freight rail carriers must contend with. Weather conditions in the Northeast contributed to those already complex challenges. Additionally, no industry, including railroads, has been immune to the economic downturn. However, recent indicators give us reason to believe that there is a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
Pan Am Railways takes a bullish view on rail traffic in Maine and is positioning itself for success. Employing more than 700 employees, with a yearly payroll of $40 million, we are a significant contributor to New England’s economy. With recent substantial investments in our infrastructure, locomotives and manpower, we have made improvements to our on-time performance.
In the paper market, our business was up 22 percent in 2010, and is still increasing. We are predicting double-digit growth in 2011. Our market share with our paper mill partners ebbs and flows with the economy, but we are proud that we have mills that ship 90-plus percent of their product by rail. With fuel prices on the rise, we anticipate many of our customers will ship more of their goods on Pan Am. That is good for our customers, good for our company, and good for Maine.
Whereas other companies had to make the tough decision to abandon Maine, Pan Am Railways expects to be a viable presence now and over the long haul.
Cynthia S. Scarano
Executive vice president
Pan Am Railways
Regret used as strategy
The implication that abortion causes women to suffer “horrific emotional trauma” is wrong (“Nix Planned Parenthood,” BDN letters, March 26). For almost all women, abortion is a carefully thought out, rational decision. For them, there is no “horrific emotional trauma,” and basing legislation on the regret of a very tiny percent of women is as irrational as banning knives because someone cut their finger.
The use of regret by conservatives as a reason to ban abortion has become one of their major arguments. At legislative hearings, they herd women to the front of the hall where they testify and weep. With knowing dishonesty, conservatives imply these few tragic women represent the experience of all women and demand government intervention to save women from making decisions they might regret at some later date.
This cynical manipulation of grieving women to promote a political agenda is shocking in its callous calculation. Equally shocking is the realization that this issue is not about preventing bad decisions, but about government controlling the right to make decisions.
In the next legislative hearing on abortion, men and women need to expose this use of regret for its real intent: the implementation of conservative dogma and government control of personal reproductive decisions.
Janet M. Alexander
Old Town
Work ethic check
To those who work for a living, ask yourself the following questions:
At the start of your work day, do you get right down to the job, or spend some time in idle chatter with fellow workers? Does morning coffee break time find you in the restroom, having left your station five minutes before?
Does your half hour for lunch run into 35 or perhaps 40 minutes? When taking afternoon break, how long are you absent from your work station? Do you stop work 10 minutes or so before it is time to leave?
Do you use a company phone for personal calls or make or receive personal calls on your cell phone during work hours? Do you send personal messages or visit websites that are not related to your job from your business computer?
How much time is spent in activities other than work?
I am not advocating that you radically change your work habits, just that you be aware of how much time you’re not “really working.” You may think that no one can do your job better than you, but don’t you think that someone might work more efficiently at it than you?
These are tough business times. Your employer is struggling to compete. How is he going to make up for the inefficient?
The U.S. was once well-known for the pride of its workmanship. If we do not alter our current work attitude, we will soon be passed by other nations and fall to a second-class economy.
Ray Patrick
Bingham