To clarify, the only changes at Selkirk at this point is cessation of gravity switching (hump switching), in favor of flat switching and block swaps, with a restructuring of yard crews. The yard is not closing, and it is not planned to, and never was.
As to E. Hunter Harrison, the man is a con-artist. His interest is merely in large short-term profits and operating cost reductions with no concern for long term sustainability. He has a long record of "efficiency improvements" that have resulted in the opposite, with numbers showing increasing dwell times, accelerated infrastructure/fleet degradation, and serious safety risks. He was admonished by the FRA and Transport Canada on numerous occasions for causing excessive fatigue on crews, deferring maintenance to a level that caused multiple derailments, and attempting to circumvent labor disputes by training non Train & Engine employees to operate trains. He is a bigger problem, not a solution.
It should also be noted that what is at stake here is not only $84 Million that he doesn't deserve or need for leaving CP, but also that CSX will pay his 2017-2018 taxes in full. If he quits for failure to receive that compensation from CSX, he gets it anyway from his partner in crime, activist investor Paul Hilal of Mantle Ridge Investments.
This is a glorified pump and dump scheme. According to SeekingAlpha and the Wall Street Journal the stock is overvalued by 22%, with a mere $1.53 profit per share. It's projected to take CP up to 15yrs to fully recover from the damage Harrison did. I don't want to imagine how long it will take for CSX to recover from even another single day of EHH.
-Signed, a pissed off investor and son of a 46yr CSX/C&O Vet.