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Started By
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re: The Class I freight railroads have gotten ridiculously bad
Posted on 4/26/22 at 4:55 pm to VolsOut4Harambe
Posted on 4/26/22 at 4:55 pm to VolsOut4Harambe
Atlas Shrugged
1
Posted on 4/26/22 at 4:56 pm to JackaReaux
Who is Elon Musk?
Posted on 4/26/22 at 5:01 pm to baldona
quote:
How long does it take to get from LA to say NOLA? 36 hours?
By train?
I have no idea how many crew changes there are between LA and NOLA but 10 crews would be a guess.
One thing people forget when it comes to railroad expenses is they own the tracks, so obviously have to pay to maintain them. And add the signal systems to that as well. And the bridges. Maintaining all of that has a pretty big expense.
Then they also have to maintain the locomotives and cars. Another big expense. And those mainline locomotives hold 5000 gallons of diesel. That won't get them from LA to NOLA without refueling along the way. The fuel costs more than the crew(s) alone.
Speaking of that, one of the the things EHH was famous for was single tracking a lot of the railroads he oversaw. The expenses of trains sitting in sidings, doubling their transit time (or more), was cheaper than maintaining the second main track.
They have ripped up and lowered the capacity of a lot of yards as well as they want to run off single car customers. CP's Chicago yard once had a capacity to sort 3200 cars/day. Now it's lucky if they can do 500.
This post was edited on 4/26/22 at 5:11 pm
Posted on 4/26/22 at 5:18 pm to BuckyCheese
CP had an operating ratio of 53% in the fourth quarter of 2021. As can be seen here compensation/benefits is by far the biggest expense.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 5:26 pm to BuckyCheese
Compensation and benefits for management is a large part of that. The railroad I worked for was very top heavy.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 5:30 pm to BuckyCheese
I hope EHH burns in hell.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 5:55 pm to VolsOut4Harambe
He will.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 6:27 pm to keakar
quote:
im still waiting on that high speed train from new york to california they promised 15 years ago. billions were spent on it and i dont think the rails even made it from california to the state line
It was LA to San Francisco…I don’t even think it made it past the engineering phase.
The money was all spent on pencil pushing engineers who made all the money and not one rail of track was laid.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 6:33 pm to Cool Hand Luke
quote:
Compensation and benefits for management is a large part of that. The railroad I worked for was very top heavy.
Yeah, adding managers didn't seem to be an issue.
Most of whom couldn't run a finger up their arse, let alone actually run a train.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 6:36 pm to BuckyCheese
They knew just enough of the operating rules to harass you and type out investigation letters.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 6:43 pm to Cool Hand Luke
Hell, wayyyyy back when I went through conductor training on the first day in the classroom they told us "The railroad will spend $60k to train you and will spend the rest of your career trying to fire you."
This was before anyone ever heard of EHH. He ramped shite to new levels.
This was before anyone ever heard of EHH. He ramped shite to new levels.
This post was edited on 4/26/22 at 6:45 pm
Posted on 4/26/22 at 7:03 pm to BuckyCheese
Yep, he was running CN when I started there.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 7:43 pm to BuckyCheese
quote:
To put it in simplest terms, they want to haul only the highest revenue loads with the longest haul. Preferably in unit trains, an entire train made up of the same thing from one origin to one destination, as their crews costs are the lowest on those.
Bingo. This shite right here. But why not let more Class 2 short lines operate on their tracks to help the smaller guys like me? I understand the cost savings aspect and all that, but stop with the propaganda on how precision rail is more efficient and customer friendly.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 9:24 pm to JohnnyBgood
They're going to frick around enough and get themselves regulated again.
I mean even republicans are gonna say you can't destroy the country because you're not making 50% on every load. There are too many industries reliant on rail transport and I'm pretty sure the common carrier laws they operated under for the past 170 years are still on the books.
CP's net income for the last quarter of 2021 was about 38%. In comparison in the auto industry the goal is 10%.
I mean even republicans are gonna say you can't destroy the country because you're not making 50% on every load. There are too many industries reliant on rail transport and I'm pretty sure the common carrier laws they operated under for the past 170 years are still on the books.
CP's net income for the last quarter of 2021 was about 38%. In comparison in the auto industry the goal is 10%.
Posted on 4/26/22 at 9:33 pm to JohnnyBgood
quote:
But why not let more Class 2 short lines operate on their tracks to help the smaller guys like me?
Because even though the shortline would be doing the set outs and pick ups, the class 1's would still need to switch them into blocks in yards along the way to it's destination.
As an example, a train out of NOLA heading north may have blocks of cars to be set out at Memphis, St. Louis, Champaign, etc. Your cars need to be put into the proper block which requires a yard and yard crew with a locomotive, yard masters, car knockers, diesel house workers, etc. Then, as the train goes down the line it sets out the block with your car where it gets switched again into blocks for wherever it is going. Even local jobs that switch the industries are blocked.
Loose car railroading is expensive and that is why the railroads hate it. Years ago they used to haul multiple trains out of Milwaukee to Chicago every day. As it's only 86 miles and those cars required local jobs to pull from the customer, switch jobs in a big yard to make up the outbound trains, and then getting switched again in another big yard in Chicago before being sent off to other railroads for transport to the receiver, the railroad made next to nothing on all that traffic due to the short haul.
Today essentially no traffic comes out of Milwaukee by rail
This post was edited on 4/26/22 at 9:35 pm
Posted on 4/27/22 at 6:50 am to VolsOut4Harambe
Indeed. My company is the Union Pacific #33 customer and they told us two weeks due to their service issues, we would be limited to 4 outbounds per day or 28 a week. We ship more than double that. I have no idea how this is not a slap in the face to shippers that when they have internal issues, the best customers get punished. I have 0 luck getting a hold of my rep either to get questions answered. We are going on 2 weeks and it hasn’t been implemented so who knows.
Posted on 4/27/22 at 6:53 am to VolsOut4Harambe
Y’all run any rail car movers? That’s what I sell. And I can second everything you said. It’s getting ridiculous
Posted on 4/27/22 at 8:08 am to keakar
quote:
still waiting on that high speed train from new york to california they promised 15 years ago. billions were spent on it and i dont think the rails even made it from california to the state line
Not that I don’t believe you but shite like this needs to be rehashed like Obama funding solar companies with billions only to have both them and the taxpayers cash mysteriously disappear.
Posted on 4/27/22 at 8:48 am to roguetiger15
quote:
Y’all run any rail car movers? That’s what I sell. And I can second everything you said. It’s getting ridiculous
Trackmobiles? Yeah, we're actually looking to procure a few for our bigger buildings.
Posted on 4/27/22 at 8:51 am to VolsOut4Harambe
That’s the brand I represent.
Gulfcoasttrackmobile@gmail.com
We have units in stock
Gulfcoasttrackmobile@gmail.com
We have units in stock
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