Opinions ?!

Looks like the agenda is going as planned.

Some of us folks that kept the old iron knew they would use the ecu chips and def as tools to make another crisis against the industry to shut it down. Then when they required it on personal diesel vehicles we knew it was to shut down diesels altogether.
Everyones need for new stuff all the time that requires all this extra special stuff to run just to basically one up each other is gonna finally be the downfall. The old rusty stuff with the hand crank starter will ultimately save the world. Cutting the fuel supply isn’t keeping people at home or making them buy teslas fast enough so roll out the next phase

 

This isn’t about the railroads trying to keep freight off the trucks this is about something called PSR precision scheduled railroading and the move of the railroads to try to eliminate another crew member on trains and go to one-man train crews or completely autonomous trains.PTC positive train control also has a lot to do with this move toward one man or no man crews. This is why you see more and more trains with power in the middle or towards the tail end it is called DPU distributed power units those units do not have crew in them the technology is advanced that those locomotives can be remotely operated thus giving longer trains more tonnage and better return on investment in the railroads eyes. This is also why you see congressional testimony on BNSF implementation of their high viz. attendance policy whereby they penalize the railroaders for not being available 24 seven 365. The railroaders have hours of service requirements just like we do when they run out of hours they call it going dead on the law. At that point the crew has to be replaced with a crew that has fresh hours this impacts the profitability of the railroads and hence the stock price and investors return. By eliminating crewman or the need for a crew altogether the trains can run autonomously and therefore in the railroads eyes more profitably hence more return for the investors. I agree there is plotting in the world to affect business cycles but what pilot is seeing is the meltdown in the railroads being overwhelmed with traffic that does not move efficiently because of their draconian attendance policies and stupid railroading guides like speed limiters and fuel mapping software that the railroad is complain about just as we complain about automation in our trucks it doesn’t let you run the trains as efficiently therefore more and more crews go dead on the law and traffic backs up and it is a vicious feedback loop that jams the railroads up their solution is to try to get their customers to ship less traffic to clear the Backups

 

Here’s just one example of the high viz attendance policy, from a train forum:

It was hilarious at the end of May watching the meltdown when so many TY&E hit their 276 Federal hour cap. Trains tied down everywhere for crews. Who didn't see that coming?

I didn't even really try to hit the cap and I ended the month with 250 on-duty hours. That doesn't include time off at the AFHT hotel either boys and girls.

VP of Transportation Matt Garland claims we work 40 hours a week and make $137,000.00 a year. God the "college boys" in Ft. Worthless are out of touch.

On top of that the chickens are coming home to roost on the mechanical side after all the PSR cuts they made there. The number of power failures and other mechanical problems causing service interruptions is staggering. Their whole stupid plan is imploding.

Or is it?

 

Good old Hunter Harrison. Some day I'll take a trip to piss on his grave.

 

His name comes up all the time on the railroad forums I read. Seems to be the Bill Zollars of the railroad indistry