Confirmation of just how badly UP has screwed themselves. They think they know the price of everything while in reality they know the value of nothing.
I don't know. They may have extra business to handle because BNSF is actively trying to divest themselves of train crews.
Something I have been wondering- Are those "Class 1" companies using PSR and mega length trains able to move the goods as swiftly as a couple of decades back? I have a feeling transit times may have slowed considerably, and that definitely would add to so-called "supply chain" issues.
Don't know if it's because of PSR, but lately NS between Meridian, MS and Atlanta has become a nightmare for AMTRAK schedule keeping. A friend was on the Crescent last week. He said they pulled into a siding to let two very long freights pass. They then backed out of the siding to proceed because there was a freight already in the siding. Apparently that freight was short enough to fit in the siding. They were over fours down into Baltimore due to freight delays.
It keeps popping into my mind that such delays were supposedly not to happen, when the whole thing was initiated fifty one years ago. Yet here we are....
Not that it is any excuse - but haven't we olde pharts been complaining for decades that the World is moving too fast?
For a railroad to operate efficiently and effectively - the Operating Plan must take into consideration the physical and geographical constraints that exist in the territory where The Plan is to be operated. In addition to acknowledging the effects of grades upon territory, track configurations with both single and multiple track territories and more importantly the size and effectiveness of terminals and their abilities to originate and terminate properly configured trains in a timely manner. Operating trains between terminals in a few hours means very little when it take three or more hours to originate that train from a terminal and have it operate to the next terminal who holds the train out for hours because they can't originate 'their' train and thus create the space for the arriving train. Oversized trains created oversized delays to all trains on the systems where oversized trains are SOP.
Sad commentary where top management orders implementation without comment or knowledge of infrastructure. It will be many years, if not decades before infrastructure catches up with longer sidings, larger/longer yards, even double-tracking in areas deemed unnecessary by the financial wizards.
