CLEVELAND -- By creating a new Network Design and Integration organization (NDI) and appointing Dennis Duffy to run its operations, the Union Pacific Railroad continues to show it is listening to the advice of the United Transportation Union.

"The Union Pacific continues to pay attention to what we have been telling them during this long service crisis," said UTU International President Charles L. Little. "We hammered away about reorganizing the railroad and regionalizing service. We advised them to put top operations people in charge. They are now doing those things, and it’s good to see."

Today, Union Pacific Corp. CEO Dick Davidson announced he has implemented part two of this plan to fix the railroad. Davidson announced the creation of a new Network Design and Integration organization (NDI) and the appointments of Brad King to lead the organization and Dennis Duffy to head its Operating Department. The appointments are effective Tuesday.

The UP said the NDI organization would stand separate from – but equal to -- Operating and Marketing. NDI will bring together into one organization the responsibility for decisions relating to railroad services, the development of transportation plans to deliver those services and the allocation of capital and human resources to support execution of the plans, UP said.

"They have listened," said Little. "Now the true test will be to make it all work"

Recently, the Union Pacific announced it would reorganize operations into three regions in an effort to decentralize control and get the troubled railroad back on track.

That announcement was the direct result of suggestions proposed by the United Transportation Union (UTU) during a series of ongoing meetings between Union Pacific senior management and the UTU’s top International officers.

The UTU, the largest operating rail and transportation union in North America, is the Union Pacific’s largest union employing 17,000 of its members.

The United Transportation Union, with 150,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, is the largest rail and transportation union in North America. It represents conductors, locomotive engineers, hostlers, switchmen, brakemen, yardmasters as well as bus operators, airline pilots and others in the transportation industry. Its headquarters is located in Cleveland, Ohio.