In 1980, the industry was partially deregulated, which opened up opportunities for mergers and allowed companies to charge rates based on services and enter into contracts with customers.
On-time delivery became an important factor in the industry.
NS responded by becoming a “scheduled railroad”--developing a fixed set of train schedules and a fixed set of connections for cars to go between trains and yards.
NS required new systems that would first use statistical models to determine the best routes and connection to optimize railroad performance, and then apply the models to create the plan that would actually run the railroad operations.