In this article from July 2018, the writer extolls the benefits of using longer trains but balances that assessment with calls for studies on extending the choo-choos. At the end of the article he states that there's evidence lacking to support a restriction on train length.
https://www.progressiverailroading....lroads-continue-the-longer-train-trend--55035
In 2019, the GAO made some recommendations and repeated the concerns about the safety problems with using longer trains. When you read through the status of those recommendations at the end of the article, it appears that nothing was done.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-443
Remember the glorious Infrastructure Bill of 2021? Inside the legislation was a provision for
"up to $2 million for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to evaluate the operation of trains longer than 7,500 feet."
The study was to be delivered to Congress within two years.
So why didn't Congress tell the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to study this problem? More on the study by the National Academy at the end of this post.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...se-of-long-trains-to-go-under-the-microscope/
Having been in a non-railroad transportation industry myself, I see the idea of "efficiency" introduced in the dynamics of management-labor relations before. Maybe I am too pro-labor (which is odd for a conservative) but too many managers think that the idea of efficiency is to have conductors and engineers on the job 30 days a month. Remember these managers all study the same subjects in business school. They all want truck drivers, ships crews and airline pilots behind the controls until they drop. They look at employees as machines rather than people.
According to the article,
“There is no single step available to deliver ideal freight rail service overnight,” Buttigieg told the board, adding that the federal infrastructure law enacted last year is “a historic opportunity to transform both freight and passenger rail for the better.”
This was a little less than six months after the Buttplug and his fellow sodomite "adopted" twin babies. Remember this was also about the time that the container ships were lining up bow to stern off our shores. The Transportation Fairy was AWOL at a time when something had to be done. When you read this article keep in mind the shot mandates that were imposed on us and how there was a labor shortage in all occupations. Truckers and railroad workers were no different. Say, did they ever straighten out that little problem with baby formula?
The leftists refuse to tackle real problems affecting us here at home but wringed their hands and pissed their pants while virtue signaling for the Ukraine about that time.
When I was about 12-13, my father was approached at work for donating to the United Negro College Fund. He told them "NO." When asked why, he answered,
"I can't afford to send my own kids to college. So why should I help someone else send their kids to college?"
They were dumbfounded. Anyway, his point stuck with me with about everything in life. Why should we help another country when we have serious problems here? Keep that in mind when you read the article below.
The article does address the labor shortage of railway workers and those are some staggering figures. Remember that the executive management teams of these big companies have a different working definition of the word
"efficiency."
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/should-the-freight-rail-industry-be-overhauled
This writer was sounding the alarm about the mega trains in November 2022, three months before the East Palestine derailment.
Say wasn't the study on long trains, by the National Academy of Sciences, supposed to be wrapping up about that time? Keep reading.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...attraction-to-extremely-long-trains-analysis/
I guess I should stop calling them
"mega trains" and use the flashy term
“precision scheduled railroading,” or
PSR. Isn't that what we're supposed to do when a new (but not necessarily smart) idea comes along and presented in the board room? The labor shortage was starting to get some attention about two months before the East Palestine derailment.
https://slate.com/business/2022/12/freight-rail-strike-trains-csx-biden-congress.html
Remember that I asked about the National Academy of Sciences Study on longer trains at the beginning of this post?
They had their first meeting last December. That was well over a year after the glorious Infrastructure Bill was signed into law. When I look at the calendar, the study is supposed to be complete by November 2023. They have a little over seven months to get the job done.
https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/impacts-of-trains-longer-than-7500-feet
Don't ever forget that King Poopy Pants put a priority over visiting the Ukrainian people over Americans in East Palestine. Don't forget that he promised to protect the pensions of the Ukrainian people but was the force behind taxing Social Security here when he was a Senator. And how long did it take the Transportation Fairy to dust off his Peter Pan wings and fly out to Ohio to visit the suffering residents of East Palestine?
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