Received several calls this month from friends in Class One management about this situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC-OGQNPxKo

Perhaps some opportunities here for railroad museums to team up with local educational institutions?

PC

this doesn't surprise me. I remember reading the latest trains magazine and hearing and learning about Lac-Megantic disaster when the MMA cut worker staff, terrible management, and neglect went with one man crew to save money which cause the disaster to happen. The MMA went bankrupt. Class 1 railroads are flirting with the idea with one man crews, automating locomotives where it doesn't need crews and treat workers like robots like to be available for 28 days straight. Class 1s are operated by stockholders and not railroaders who know the industry inside and out. Precision schedule railroading doesn't work and now it's showing its ugly face. Cost cutting can be a good thing if you're smart about it. A railroad can't operate without workers period. Cutting the staff will not make things profitable not the long run. Short lines do it better because they're are focusing on building volume, win new customers, make sure the motive power is in top notch condition, most importantly operating by railroaders and not stock holders. If the class 1s don't work with the railroaders union and not go with one man crews then there will be a full blown strike and I would support it. Will I like to deal with another supply chain delays? no but like everyone here we have to support the crew or otherwise we could see another Lac-Megantic or even worse.

P.S. I never intend to make this political I don't want to get into a political debate with everyone here

There are enough of us here who have worked in the industry to know the truth you speak of.

I know Paul that's why I said I'm sure many people here are more qualified to run a class 1 than stock holders

A similar article in Trains (though not good form to call railroaders complainers in the first paragraph): https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -analysis/

We used to say that if supervision would just leave us alone things would run a lot better, let alone the stockholders.

that's true Paul. I believe that stock holders need to be taught a lesson if you want to sustain a profit you need to hire more workers pay them more and stay out of the way so they can do their job etc or we're going to see a major strike. I believe in order to save the class 1s is this

1)break them up you can make 4 class 1s into 8 or maybe 12 to make them sustainable.

2)put union reps and senior workers on the board and make them worker co-op

3) could try to hand the operation to the workers and let them be in charge since they are the front line workers and know what they're doing and what's going on.

or I don't want this to be the case but

4)nationalize them let the government run the class 1s so there would be no conflict of interest and improve operations. during the civil war the government nationalized the railroads they were able to transport troops and supplies much easier to head towards the front lines. I forgot when was the 2nd time that happened I believe that's when Conrail was created before it was privatized.

I don't want this to be political I want to put my two cents in. I don't want a political warfare here since I want to talk about railroading here and not politics.

Sounds like lots of people are proposing that dreaded socialism.

Can you imagine??

Seriously though. Modern railroads are demonstrating beautifully the problems endemic with poorly regulated capitalism. There is no strong "public interest counterpart" to the companies doing what what companies are supposed to do: maximize the value of the shares of that company for its current owners.

In our world, where company ownership is incredibly easy to acquire or divest of (think E-Trade), the ONLY incentive a publicly owned company has is to make itself as valuable as possible RIGHT NOW. If it doesn't, there are plenty of other options of what it's owners can do with their money that will.

The "nationalisation" fetish might be creeping here from overseas; there are various movements/calls to re-nationalize rail networks in Britain in particular, as well as other EU countries where "de-nationalisation" was "imposed" on most of the EEC member states in the 1990s, including Japan. This mostly took the form long suggested by more modern nationalization advocates: the government retains ownership of the infrastructure, with private operators taking out franchises on services or paying usage fees to run.

Basically a generation later, the pendulum is swinging the other way in reaction (over-reaction?) to failed promises, botched private operations, skyrocketing fares, etc. The demands for re-nationalization are typically being made by people too young to know or remember that British Railways, Deutsche Bahn, etc. was too often a national joke if you got away from the premier services targeted at international tourists.

The perfect response to such activism is to ask "Do you REALLY want your freight and passenger services run by the same government that brings you the US Post Office/the DMV/National Health Service/Amtrak/etc.?" (I will admit that, IN GENERAL, the DMV, NHS, etc. do an adequate job--but don't ask about postal service in my local area, thankyouverymuch.........)

And, of course, it behooves us to recognize that the American rail network has about one thing only to legitimately compare to the rail networks of Europe, Japan, etc.--a track gauge of (in most cases) 1435 mm.................

Canadian National and Conrail both seemed to operate pretty well during the years our respective federal governments owned them.

I don't see nationalization happening here again, but remember Matt Rose warning about how the negative effects of PSR would lead to re-regulation?

The way large North American railroads treat their employees has been a problem for decades, but things seem to have gotten a lot worse very quickly at the American Class I's over the past few years. The railroads only have themselves to blame.

Last I knew I thought USA freight railroads are moving more tons per capita than any where else in the world. Now due to a temporary staffing issue ( due to a situation that's effecting almost every other industry in the county) some people think that placing the railroads under the control of the same federal government that can't seem to restore a single steam locomotive at steamtown is a good idea?

I don't believe in nationalization. But I do think there needs to be some recognition of the fact that the industry plays a critical part in the national economy and it needs to be treated as such.



You use steamtown as an example of the government's management prowess?

How about the interstate highway system or the inland navigable waterways? I'd say those are closer analogs, but I guess they don't fit the "tEh GuBeRmEnT iS tEh PrObLeM" mantra that seems to pass for qualified analysis.

If you think the manpower shortage on the railroad can be placed squarely on the shoulders of COVID-19, or that there's even similarities to the railroad and the Taco Bell that can't hire line cooks, you're dead wrong. The carriers have been responsible for this with the implementation of draconian attendance policies, Precision Scheduled Railroading, a blatant lack of rolling stock and infrastructure maintenance, and a callous attitude towards the boots on the ground that make the money.

I'm a career railroader. I know this job is no walk in the park. I'm fortunate to have a management team who is attentive and actually cares about their workforce, and the culture at work reflects that. The way these Class I guys are treated is absolute garbage, but the C-Suite executives will scratch their heads when employees quit or furloughed employees don't come back, then say the most asinine and patently false things like "nobody wants to work anymore!" The Class I train crews are on the verge of a strike. It would be awful for our economy if they did, even fit just a day or two. I'm at the point where I hope they do strike, and I hope it hurts for the Class Is.

That's the current yardstick for productivity and good business acumen? Man am I out of touch.

Can you tell me which C-Suite you work in? I would like to short your company's stock.

Class-I employees have been working without contracts for over three years. A Presidential Emergency Board was named last month, which just delayed the strike for 60 days.

R/Railroading is filled with posts from railroaders who say they are just hanging on until they get a new contract - they are saying they will be quitting the moment they receive their lump-sum checks of backpay.
I agree with the rest of your post, but just wanted to add that the continued uncontrolled spread of Covid is certainly not helping!

The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Long COVID - Household Pulse Survey estimates that 7.6% of all adults in the US were experiencing long Covid during June 29-July 11, 2022.