Canadian Pacific to unveil new operational structure, job cuts

Canadian Pacific Ltd., Canada's second-largest railway company, plans to announce a major reorganization of its operations in the next two weeks, as part of its ongoing focus to improve efficiency and customer service, according to an internal document obtained by Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Calgary-based CPR is
restructuring its 11 regions into six for operations and engineering to
"address a current gap" in operations and "facilitate the
delegation of accountability and authority" to the regional level to
"ensure efficient train operations" and "respond quickly to
local operating issues," says Ed Harris, chief operations officer, in his
August Operations Update – Special Edition.

Harris, a former U.S.
marine, joined CPR in April, three years after retiring from rival Canadian
National Railway Co. (CN) where he was CN’s executive vice president of
operations. Montreal-based CN is the industry leader in terms of efficiency,
well known for running a low-cost, high-profit railroad.

A company spokesman
confirmed the document’s statements. CPR began a top-down operational review in
2008, before the onset of the recession, after detecting a drop in traffic,
says CPR spokesman Mike LoVecchio.

"We’re peeling back
the onion and this is another layer," he says.

The six regions are
British Columbia, Alberta/Saskatchewan, Manitoba/Northern Ontario, Southern
Ontario/Quebec, U.S. West and U.S. East. General managers will be named for
each region the week of August 30, Harris says in the document.

The service area manager
positions will be "collapsed" into current manager operations
positions and be identified as "superintendent" positions across
operations.

Job cuts are likely.
According to the document, there is "no quota" for staff reduction,
but positions will be eliminated.

"We do not know the
number of positions that will be affected," it says.

It also says there will
be no voluntary packages, and efforts will be made to redeploy individuals.

CP intends to complete its
organizational realignment by the end of October.