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When Union Pacific executives said they would try to run a more efficient railroad, they weren’t kidding: Barreling down the track is a plan to improve the company’s operating performance.

As part of that plan, the company said Tuesday it would cut its workforce by about 250 people, according to a memo it sent to employees obtained by The World-Herald.

The company also said it had furloughed about 450 employees in the railroad’s mechanical department as more than 1,000 locomotives recently have been idled. When a worker is furloughed, it’s a kind of temporary layoff, under which he or she is put on “inactive” status.

The railroad said the cuts were necessary to improve “efficiency and productivity.”

“These initiatives also are allowing the company to better compete in our marketplace against other railroads and freight transportation modes,” U.P. said in the memo to employees. “While more organizational and operating changes are still to come, the improvements to date are significant.”

A spokeswoman said Union Pacific didn’t have any further comment than what was in the memo.

Among the 250 jobs to be cut, about 60 percent of those are in Omaha, according to the memo.