Freight Trains in the US Are a Disaster Waiting to Happen
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Freight trains in the US are crashing more often, and people in the industry are worried about what comes next. VICE News' Motherboard looks into how the industry got here.
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This aged pretty well I'd say.
Just came here from yet another derailment post on Reddit
I’m a freight conductor. No lies were told in this reporting.
I'm a random person on CZcams claiming to be in certain profession. This is the truth.
@@anandprakashpathak2586 ppl in the comments do this all the time, it’s literally insane🤣
But did you end the video feeling encouraged or discouraged?
@Jay T | then you must have heard of the *Lac-Mégantic incidence* here in CANADA - 0:12
One lie: Using technology to cut costs is bad. Actually, no it isn't. Using technology to be more efficient is a good thing. Not doing a complete safety inspection (not a technology issue) is not a good thing.
As an employee of one of the big 5 railroads on the east coast, I can say that ALL statements in this video is true!!!!! I was employed long before Hunter Harrison's (P.S.R) scheme was implemented(spread like cancer) in the united sates. The work force was plentiful and morale was high. Nowadays...................
I hope Harrison is rotting in hell for what he did. His actions killed a lot of activity on the railroads. Nice AR build btw.
@@seaboardspastic Yes sir!!!!!!!! All me and my coworkers do is reminisce of pre-harrison(2015) days. Of course in 2014 our ceo was Cindy Sanborn and they were making cuts in preparation for harrison and Mantle Ridge. After his takeover it really cranked up. THANKS by the way.
Sounds like berkley hunt
PSR doesn't work for Norfolk Southern and CSX because they employed the same system other railroads were using. PSR needs to be changed and formed around the way a railroad operates. NS and CSX operate completely different from railroads like CN. So if a railroad employs the same system of PSR CN uses won't work. Harrison was trying to reform PSR to work for CSX, but died before he could finish. Management decided to roll with what they had and not change anything, so of course it didn't work. NS on the other hand is just a complete mess. Jim Squires is running his railroad into the ground and he refuses to realize it.
@@alexandergrube6437 I agree. All those executives and board members saw were dollar signs. The most major difference in how Canadian and US Railroads run can be in geographical layouts alone. Csx an NS are east and midwest running companies. Which means they are going through cities and towns blocking crossings causing emergency response delays etc. Let alone the customers who switch to trucking.
And now the East Palestine Ohio derailment ......PSR is killing the railroad.
Whattt?!? Corporate America not taking preventative measures in the name of safety in order to protect their profit margins?!?! Who's ever heard of such things?!?
Republicans haven't. They need to be taught this
@@austinhernandez2716 biden is president and this is happening
@@ld1065 He's a republican basically. He's a corporate neo liberal.
@@ld1065 The President does not individually control this. Local policymakers have far more power. Most rural areas that trains go through are governed by Republicans. Knock that stupid disingenuous nonsense off.
Weird that all those privately run airlines don't fall from the sky?
Profit is always the motive. RIP to the people that have died and will die for profit.
Yeah. Think millitary.
Trains are still safer than trucks
Tbf by that logic you could say happiness is always the motive
Money = influence = power = what some consider to be success = happiness
Not just profit, but greed
Jedidiah Sojourner I agree, military and healthcare >_>
PLEASE SPREAD THIS. EVERYTHING IN THIS VIDEO IS REAL. THEY HAVE CUT SO MANY EMPLOYEES IN THE PAST 3 YRS FROM EVERY DEPARTMENT IN THE GROUND THAT THE WORK IS NOT BEING DONE 100%. ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS PROFIT. I MIGHT GET FIRED FOR THIS. THEY WORK LIKE THE MOB. OUR UNION IS SO AFRAID THAT THEY TURN THE OTHER WAY
There have been employees, former employees, shippers and members of the public shouting that PSR is ruining railroading for the past two decades.
Yet, the railroad industry and the industry press keeps pushing it.
This video was dead on, but it's just pissing in the wind. Nobody in management cares.
I'm glad to be out of the industry.
Like every corporation in the US?
@@FoolOfATuque The railroads invented the art of railroading people.
@@MillBrookRailroad yeah I’m just pointing out that every corporation in the US has a problem with corporate greed.
@@FoolOfATuque I wouldn't say every corporation, but certainly way too many. The problem is that corporate greed is driven by personal greed.
Every corporation must ask themselves: Who does the company serve? Customers who directly support revenue and grow the business organically or shareholders who bought a piece of the business that the company sold off once and now buy and sell chunks of it like trading cards?
Different companies will have different answers based on their circumstances.
For instance: I currently work for a small broadcast corporation whose goals are to keep the stations on the air with good programming that builds audience and keeps the advertisers advertising. They can't do that without people and they want the best people they can afford. They are wonderful to work with.
I have worked for other companies where the workforce and the customers were seen as necessary evils to keep the company running. They were not nice places to be.
The railroad industry used to have a lot more companies like the former example. Nowadays, there are more and more companies, but not all, who seem to follow the latter example.
Precision Scheduled Railroading is a symptom of that problem. It started out as a quick way to inflate the stock value of a company so they could sell it for more money and now it's seen as a permanent profit booster. Cut costs at all cost no matter what the cost. It ruined the long term profitability of broadcasting and it'll ruin railroading in the same way.
Welp a year later and this video hasn't aged poorly
I also work for a class 1. 100% correct. The trains keep getting bigger and heavier and the FRA is bending over backwards for the companies.
“Why is my train out of order?”
“Idk, also, your length is around 14,000 FT, you got 1 unit in the lead with faulty PTC and one cut in mid train with its dynamics cut out. Have fun!”
Solution?
@@nicholasthompson7690 jail those that are taking payoffs!
Thats y i quit
@@nicholasthompson7690 probably Consolidated Rail Corporation 2.0.
I work for a major Class One Railroad in the Mechanical Department. This video report is 100% correct!
Management preaches safety till your ears bleed!!!!! However that information is voided once you leave your safety meeting unfortunately..... ✌🏻
I know exactly what you mean. I'm former UP.
Sounds like this is happening everywhere. Management will preach safety everyday but will then pressure workers to work unsafe snd when something goes wrong they blame the workers.
Csx mechanical here! 100% truth.
VICE is being hypocritical since they also opposes the construction of pipelines like the Keystone XL. There's no safer and cheaper way to move massive amounts of oil and natural gas than via pipelines.
@@tangomango8474 seems like my school does that too, well not for maintenance but for health and safety. They preach their mask policy and social distancing and care about covid but nobody actually socially distances or properly wear masks or clean and that is why there is a pretty large covid outbreak at my school that is being covered up again...
How is this not trending?
And it happened...
PSR is making rail networks way less safe. The car inspectors workforce in the division of NS that I worked for was cut drastically over my 4 year career. The hours for car inspectors were longer and they were supposed to inspect more cars in less time. In Enola it was a bare bones work force. What the video says is absolutely true regarding the inspection times. They also changed the off air time between inspections from 4 to 24 hours, which allows cars to sit longer without having the air brake system charged with air. During winter the reduced train length was reduced, usually this is in place because of longer charge time in cars because of colder air. They are getting rid of the “humps” in class yards and instead flat shifting the cars once they arrive. This process in Enola is causing major problems with car damage because of the new shifting demands. Dragging hand brakes applied causing flat spots on wheels, kicking cars for nearly a mile on track that is improperly lit and at an unsuitable grade for the requirements of the crew, tracks too close together to properly work safely, these are just a few of the concerns that were starting to arise when I left.
They kept telling us that we needed to shift 200 cars a shift, in any weather. It’s ludicrous, sparks flying and destroying wheels, what if its snowing or raining and the rails are buried or wet? Running at max speed during those times is just ridiculous. That's all management wanted though was a certain number of cars shifted and having the tracks set and inspected ready to depart. Derails from the new "plan" were an almost everyday thing, Derails! Even with the old hump they didn't have derails everyday, or even every week.
On top of that they make trains longer and longer making them much more dangerous and harder to properly transport safely. We departed trains to Pittsburgh that were nearly 3 miles long regularly. I've put them together and it's no fun, the yard was built at a time when trains were much shorter, one or two tracks of cars put together would be your train. Now it's doubling up 4 or 5 tracks and putting Distributed power in the middle of the train. That's a whole other box of worms because the DP units usually messed with the air brakes during departure and would just increase the departure time by at least half an hour. Imagine being a conductor on that train and having to walk it for an inspection if a detector goes off alerting you to an issue in your consist. Ridiculous. A six mile round trip inspecting your train in the middle of nowhere in any weather or any time of day or night on footing that may not be great because of cuts in maintenance of tracks.
On top of the cost cutting, sleep deprivation, the move towards one man crews and hazardous materials makes the industry more dangerous. NS is moving towards a huge extraboard of all employees, where you just are on call for work. Set schedules were difficult to come by especially for younger employees who didn't have seniority in the workforce. During my 4 years I was only ever on call and never had a regular schedule. It took me months just to get back to a normal sleep schedule after quitting and I can't imagine what kind of damage that has on others.
Track, car, and engine maintenance is ignored across the system, I used to look at the unusual occurrences reports that the transportation dept. put out while waiting in the office and it was scary how much of an increase there was after Harrison pushed the industry towards PSR. They're destroying the engines too, recently they've parked hundreds of engines in Roanoke, VA and laid off hundreds of workers who maintained them. PSR is creating a disaster in America’s Freight Train network. Long winded rant I know, but it's an issue that one barely discusses outside of work and it is very important. Thanks for the video Vice.
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I see the white blaze!!! Hiker trash pride!!!!!
Thank you brother. It's going to get worse. I'm from California n things are getting bad out here.
Thank you for being brutality honest about telling the truth about PSR.
Yeah, but Hunter Harrison and a few big investors made millions. Won't someone think of the rich executives?
Europe and Asia: Lets build safe 21st century high speed rail to modernize public transit safety and environmental impact!
North America: Best I can do is 1 (diesel) train derailment per day and a couple hundred million fossil fuel cars and trucks zooming around and smashing into each other every day.
LoL
We’re are going backwards instead of forward 😠😢
@@marimarujaa7818 America is still the greatest country on Earth no matter how many derailments happen. The world is just jealous.
In Italy there's a strong competition in the high speed railways... The state owns the trucks, two operators (one fully private, one legally private but owned by the state) run on them, plus some international trains to France, Austria and Switzerland
@@marktrinidad7650 "America is evolving, just backwards."
This is F- crazy considering what’s happening in Ohio now.
Now we see the warning that was heaved
I'm a clerk for one of the line mentioned in this video so I don't exactly work on the trains, but I can say that form what I do see of PSR, the name of the game is cut cost at any cost. it's not good for anyone in the long term...
Respect for speaking out. Hope you can keep your job.
I recieve freight from CSXT railcars and they are bad! I put in work orders to have holes in the bottoms fixed so we can stop leaking Limestone every where but they never fix. Its caused derailments because how bad they leak.
@@frannyfranfrancis what do u do with limestone
*Who is responsible for SIGNING the PERMITS??*
Thanks for validating the points being made in this video. And thanks for speaking out.
Imagine being the VP that chooses not to take profits and instead breaks the cycle to make a healthy long term decision. That would be hard, and probably get you fired.
they usually just put their kids and nieces/nephews in those jobs to avoid that
imagine doing anything with common sense... this world as we know it is utterly doomed. we learn nothing from the past. our repeated mistakes will be our undoing sooner than later. have a great afternoon!
Hur da der but the Stock price!
Coat cutting is happening everywhere by everybody in order to ensure higher payouts to top shareholders and executives. The working class is getting fucked over and social democrats are thr only ones who can lead us to a prosperous future
That’s how America has let the corporations run our country into the ground. Lack of regulation. Lack of laws. Lack of enforcement. Our government only cares about keeping the rich happy. Investors want their ROI as soon as possible and CEOs want the most profit to live their lavish lifestyles.
But hey what could go wrong and corporations need the $$$
2022: this report.
2023: Ohio train derailment and posterior toxic leak.
The fact that inspection times are measured with a decimal point tell us a lot. 1.4 minutes is how long it takes to walk from one end of a train car to the other. Not how long it should take to inspect it. Holy Moses!!
If it takes you 1.4 minutes to walk from one end of a train car to the other you are slow as phuck!! Rail cars are only 50 feet long.. I was a freight railroad conductor and I had to hustle all day. If management saw you walking that slow you would catch holy hell
@@skyking6989 I was using a bit of sarcasm. Can an inspection of a freight car actually be done in 1.4 minutes?
@@jasonlacroix6083 Hell no! I agree with you on that point.
@@skyking6989 it's a good thing we will never have high speed rail. Those things would be flying off the rails like crazy.
@@jasonlacroix6083 stop trying to wish for highspeed rail, American doesn't even have regular commuter rail. i live in korea and 90% of the country has used rail (metro, commuter, highspeed) in the past month. wanting highspeed rail in the US is like wanting a Ferrari and your country only has dirt roads. start pushing for basic commuter rail first and then maybe in like 30-50 years if we as a nation focused on it, we might get it
Facts. Track maintenance isna joke now. We would even be willing to go on strike because of the unreasonable expectations and lack of help, but the federal government won't authorize it!
That'll be fun when the federal strikebreakers come in
#AllTrainsMatter
Do you have to ask the federal government for authorization to strike?! (I'm not american, BTW)
@@Megaghost_ There are particular government employees who do not have their right to strike protected by law because striking would be detrimental to infrastructure and services if they did.
Its not a great solution but imagine if all the air traffic controllers went on strike for a week.
Trumps infrastructure plan boiled down to "do it with less people with less pay and you can't unionize".
This video is like wine.
I was a conductor for the Union Pacific and this is all true. Another thing wrong is the attendance policies are insane. I could only take 1 day off every 3 weeks. You got tired people running these trains, and were always on call. No schedule, No time off.
it's partly the fault of the workers that accept this kind of abuse.
Step up people! Don't just take it, because otherwise they will just keep pushing!
(do you know the saying? "when you give a finger, they will take an arm")
And even if you aren't allowed to strike, there are other things that can be done.
Just do it all together and there won't be a thing they can do about it!
@@Robbedem We try to push back, but the Unions bend over every time, then theres not much we can do.
@@wd840films if enough people agree, unions will have to follow or they won't exist anymore. ;)
@@Robbedem yep thats it! unions are pretty much wothless these days lol
Shitcan the unions. Its a high paying but not particularly skilled job, that means you have your own leverage because most people aren't willing to do it.
20 years for a class 1 railroad now. 5 in craft, 11 in management, and now 4 back in the craft. Mr. Cox knows exactly what he's talking about, he and I have had MANY interactions through the years. The railroads are cutting corners, costs, jobs, and safety all in the name of profits. PERIOD.
I notice there's tons of disillusioned managers that come back to the crafts these days. Which leads to another problem in that many of the managers are not railroaders they are bean counters from outside and don't have that same knowledge base the old timers used to have.
Trucks are going to take this market back and there are rumors that Amazon and FedEx wants to buy one of these Class1Systems
Do these companies not get fined for safety breaches ?
America is really china not kidding
2023 here and this Vice video has been proven 100% fact. 💯
unfettered capitalism at its best
I work in the railroad
As a foreman and the thing I hate the most is when your made to get out of your truck get up on close enough to report issues while the train is passing on by going 50-60mph
On KCS, UP, CP, lines etccc....
What if it where to derail my whole crew including I are screwed and a crew is usually around 6-8 guys ...
May the lord keep us safe while we’re away bringing home the bread and butter for our families
And hopefully something gets done
Like they say every rule in the railroad is written down with blood 🩸
I used to work on the railroad and know people that still do. They all complain about how they are all pushed to their limits, due to staffing, rules, and stricter timings that are impacting safety. They've also been talking about trying to get trains down to single employees, instead of an engineer and a conductor. So if you think its unsafe now, just wait. Profit above all else, thus is capitalism.
Agreed getting rid of the guard (who is qualified in safety measures such as evacuation of carriages) is bad, look what happened with Southern Rail when they tried to go DOO, people criticised the guards for striking. Guards are handy if someone takes your prebooked seat and you need them to move.
Meeting quotas is all about socialism. Even worse than capitalism. Any suggestions?
@@algrayson8965 Ok boomer
The government could step in, but they don't. This shows it's not just capitalism, it's corruption, which is present in every system since it's human nature to want to influence the people who hold power in your own interest.
@@loup9003 "present in every system" well if we admit that capitalism isn't working, then maybe we should try something else and see how we do at that, in America at least.
In general, don't trust corporations. You can bet your money that they're trying to cut costs at the expense of someone else somewhere.
Trust corporations? You talk like they're people instead of ran by people!
@@RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr I’ve worked at privately owned businesses and ones run by corporations. Trust me, there’s a difference
@@kchiang4 At the end of the day no there isn't, it's people running both, neither are an entity unto themselves. To stop corporatism we must deal with the people, the idea of corporate personhood deflects responsibility for the actions made by people.
@@RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr No, it is corporations because a corporation allows those at the top (the board, CEO, CTO, supervisors) a veil to hide from public humiliation and accountability with the decisions they make. You know how many times the employee in the front lines suffer and get yelled at by customers? In a small shop, the owner’s usually in the front line and his face is known in the community. He/she actually WORKS there and knows what the staff actually needs and where resources like money and hours need to be allocated, not irrelevant protocols mandated by corporate or cutting costs where funding is needed to please shareholders while they live a lavish lifestyle making millions behind the corporate curtain. In my field of work, we are heavily understaffed 24/7 due to corporate wanting to milk us out, and in my line of work, lives are at risk if we make an error. You are an idealist. You don’t know reality. Employees are like fruit. You can grow them organically, provide them good conditions, and care, or you can just not care, provide mediocre soil, stress them out by suffocating them in a sealed bag to ripen faster (that’s a legit trick) and gmo them like crazy for a profit. And then the customer whines why the fruit is not so sweet.
@@RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr Corp < corpus, body According to the doctrine built of the emanations of the penumbras of the 14th amendment, corporations are persons.
Fun fact: railfans are among the earliest adopters of CZcams.
railfans are awful people. ive seen their videos and all they do is film stuff that doesnt matter. like wtf is your life if you film trains...
@@yeoldeseawitch I can't tell if your joking since you literally have a model train video on your channel
"Hacking" culture and also urban exploring started in MIT's model railroad club.
@@yeoldeseawitch bruh you literally make no sense there are more train videos online then anything else. If railfans are dumb that means people who flim cars, planes, ship, busses and other things are to right your the one who needs to grow up stop taking a dump on people hobbies and if people didn't care about trains, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DAMN VIDEOS ABOUT TRAINS. Shut up
@@yeoldeseawitch “You are not just a clown, you are the entire circus.”
uh hi norfolk southern, hows that 1.5 min inspection going?
Cost cutting doesn’t work? Who could have seen that coming?
Capitalism 😉
There's trimming the fat, then there's scraping the bone. A lot of these railroads are getting close to the bone if they haven't already hit it.
That's an oversimplification. The cost cutting isn't the problem, it's a symptom. The railroads essentially have everyone over a barrel and therefore people can't complain about their services. Late shipment? Railroad isn't liable, it shows up when it shows up and you carry the cost.
Stupid Republicans and conservatives. They say that the free market will fix itself 🙄
It does work.. they are making profits.
My dad worked at a rail company and was trying to whistle blow this year's ago
You say tried. So what happened?
@@stijn2472 he died of cancer
@@kristpuncher8511 I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences.
As an employee of a Class 1 railroad suffering under PSR, I can say this video is highly accurate. It doesn’t mention how some small businesses being served are not profitable “enough”; they’re profitable for the RR, but the RR says the profit isn’t enough for their goals, so they get rid of the customer. I’d like to see law firms start putting out commercials asking for former RR customers who have been treated badly contact them, let’s see if they can prove in a court of law the RRs are violating common carrier obligations in their fetish for insane profit margins.
Can this be a top comment, please? It’d be nice if VICE staff went through the comments every few hours and pin one like this for some time.
@Out Of Context Not nessesarily true, denying costumers service and differentiated service fees by the railroad companies where some of the the things adressed to fight Standard oil before it was broken up.
I have seen some shortlines popping up. Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) was founded in the 90's and it's basically all businesses CN and CP felt they weren't making enough money on. They were clearly making money as CEMR is making hundreds of millions on the customers they didn't care about.
Piddly ass factories that ship one car a week aren't worth the railroad's time. That's what intermodal is for. If you want carload back defund the roads.
@@erikrungemadsen2081 Abolish antitrust.
This aged well.
It's not just the US, CP Rail in Canada is notorious for this stuff as well
Most of railways are funded by 1% class people who don't care for accidents like that , i know for a fact that the CN is owned by Bill Gates as the biggest shareholder and i looked up CP Rail out of curiousity and their shareholders are all banks. They have the ressources to make the change but they don't.
I vividly recall the catastrophe some years back, when a runaway CP train carrying crude oil from the Williston field to a New Brunswick refinery destroyed much of a village on the Quebec-Maine border.
@@lylecosmopolite Lac Mégantic, killed 47 people
@@FishFishTank if Bill Gates is a shareholder , then there is leverage to shame him. After all he is public persona.
Trains in Canada are 50 years old or more and the tracks are rough as hell.
Railroad Worker: Yo, industry's acting like BOEING people!
Americans: 👀
Or BP (British Petroleum) with their offshore oil rig that caught fire, exploded and polluted the Gulf Coast in 2010.
I was a locomotive electrician for 12 years.. it was the best job I ever had and it was the worst as well.. it was definitely a disorganized mess either way..
That's a fact.
i remember that day in quebec so well... one of my friends lost his sister that day... My house was so close to the crash site, un block down the road and we’d be gone...
As a former freight, now passenger, conductor all I can say is hopefully VICE will open some eyes and ears with this. Great piece.
You make it sounds like it hasn’t already happened.. The 2014 disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Québec that you mention at the beginning is the result of the poor practices of the MMA railway company, which operates both in the US and Canada but is majority-owned and headquartered in the US. Their cost-cutting measures have *already* taken a toll.
MMA was bought out years ago, CP bought out the line, preceding the cmq
I'm a truck driver and here in the UK we have to take ten minutes to inspect our trucks before we go on there road. Lights, tyres, wheels, horn, washers, mirrors, body condition, load security, coupling security (if applicable). Less than two minutes for a large rail carriage is insanity.
And that's for each trip. The rail cars may only be inspected every 30000 mi
Rail cars are significantly less complex than a truck is though
Watching this again in 2023 during the East Palestine spill. Literally the exact same situation, and nothing has changed.
Well, here we are a year later and guess what has been happening...
I work near these freight trains and some hazardous cars that are taken by CSX I can confirm that they barely do what they're supposed to do. They should just let graffiti artists do the inspections, I swear more of them care about the cars then workers do.
My grandpa was a switch man fir Rio Grande railroad way back. He also did inspections. Once they were bought out by union pacific I remember picketing with him in the early 90s because of all cost cutting bull crap they wanted to do. Fast forward 30 years and its WAY worse.
Wow lol , anybody watching after the East Palestine disaster?
As a major class 1 employee this is 10000% correct the greed will cause catastrophe sooner rather than later. If the general public only knew/ saw what junk we see every day they would be outrage for the safety of the public.
so many comments from people working for these companies, but none of them actually stepping up in the real world?
Things aren't going to get better on their own you know...
@@Robbedem most of the employee fears of a blacklist effect. company have any right and reason to fire and not hire you. whistleblow and you basically blacklist yourself to every industry in the country.
Who’s here after the train derailment in Iowa?
Class 1 RR employee, this is 100% true and not propaganda. Wall Street has infected the railroad industry with increasing greediness that has resulted in prioritization of profits over safety.
Truth. I quit once the safety guidelines were cut and the trains got longer. Buddy got his leg torn off in a yard because they decided to put a main right next to the bowl.
Is that how he got the name Hobbles?
I work for a class 1 railroad, let me tell vice about the draconian attendance policy I’ve worked like four weeks straight without a day off 18 hour days 10 hours at home and everyone of my brothers and sisters is doing that right now no wonder we are a ticking time bomb the railroad is using up it’s human and rolling stock.
Then quit princess. Nobody forcing you to work there. Cool story tho
@@slendy3864 Cant homeless people just buy houses???
Your union permits them to work you 18 hrs a day? And 18 plus 10 equals 28 hrs in a day?
@@johnstudd4245 The max working day performing service is 12 hours but you can still be stuck on the clock waiting for vans or relief crews. I’ve had multiple 20 hour working days. Railroad “days” are a misnomer. We work on call 24/7/365 which you can’t understand unless you’ve worked it. My last 5 “days” of start times have been 0800, 0700, 1330, 0200, 1945 but has actually extended across 7-8 real 24 hour days. The projected on-duty times consistently vary by 18+ hours (useless) so you can easily start your 12 hour work day having already been awake for 12 hours or more because you were expecting to go to work but they pushed back the call time.
Rail is one of the safest and most energy efficient ways of moving freight. The government needs to step in before PSR and other cost cutting methods change this. Instead of letting corporate interests make the rules, the FRA needs to implement regulations on maximum train length (8,500') and two man freight crews (like the airlines standard of pilot and co-pilot).
What's magic about 8500' and where does that number come from? Why not 8000 or 9000? Why not based on number of cars (they vary in length), total tonnage, or such?
The inspections and maintenance are more of a concern from what I've seen in the derailments and those happen all along the consist, not just past 8500'. That's what seems to be squeezed in the video discussion, rather than length. I know of several automated inspection systems for rail, wheels, axles, etc, but nothing proves a brake system like a bleed-down test and those take time.
@@jameswyatt1304 since this video focused mostly on lack of inspections I'm guessing most of the people he interviewed are carmen (the people who inspect and repair rail cars). While I agree with everything in this video, it isn't the only changes brought on by PSR. Cutting the number of trains leading to some of them being 10,000'-15,000'+. As I know more about this aspect and how PSR has effected safety, that is why I mention it. Perhaps you might have so insight in regards to what changes should be made regarding inspections, and how they could enforce them.
I can tell you have some knowledge of railroading, but for those that don't let me explain some of the risks of long trains. Along the way I'll get to where the 8,500' number comes in.
Where each railcar connects is a knuckle, and between each knuckle there is a certain amount of space or give which we refer to as 'slack'. In some cars its an inch or two, in cars with cusion underframes it could be as much as a couple feet. The more cars you have, the more total slack in your train.
One of an engineers jobs is to mange the slack, either have the train all stretched out, or all bunched up. The reason for this, and I'm going to do a poor job of explaining, but slack is kind of like a rubber band. If you stretch it too hard or too fast it will break in half. Engineers have to be careful not to pull on them to rapid or the train will stretch out to rapidly and snap a knuckle and break the train in half, potentially causing a derailment.
The reverse of overstreching is also bad. Slack running into you or bunching up (think releasing that rubber band) can cause problems such as run out (a heavy set up cars pushing a block a head of them hard, thefore stretching them put and breaking a knuckle) or do something called 'pimching a car out'. The video talked about changes with keeping light cars off the veey few on the head end, but this can also happen mid train.
While you can see more cars mean more slack and potential derailment, you can gather why there should be a max, but why 8,500 feet? This is typically the range where slack becomes harder to mange (at this length you could be going up a hill stretching part of your train simultaneously with a different part going down hill bunching it up). This is also the range you start to have issues with being out of range of the EOT (end of train device) and the head end box, thus losing coms. The maximum range the FRA has set between Remote units (in distributed power setups) is also 8,500 feet.
There is more to the dangers of long trains besides just managing slack, or EOT and remote engine capabilities. Its also about an engineers ability to stay off crossings. I know some of you think they love stopping on crossings and ruining your day, but a lot of though goes into making sure they block as little as possible. Most county roads are a mile apart, or 5'250ish feet. 8,500' is about the maximum amount you can squeeze in and not have the gates activated on either end. If we block two with a 10,000' train, that means you, or an ambulance, fire truck, police officer responding to an emergency will have to drive several miles out of there way when seconds count.
You mentioned something else about wayside defectors and I could go into a rant about that, but I feel this video touched on the importance of catching defects before the train leaves the yard so I'll leave it at that. I hope my long rambling message helped clear things up regarding those who want a cap on 8,500' trains.
Bring the caboose back. One reason the cabooses were removed was because of "cost" to the companies. The cabooses can be much safer and crews can alternate when one crew is almost fatigued.
@@calebbaker2757 No. Cabooses were dangerous, and there is no need to deadhead crews around. Just change the crew where it makes sense. They stay closer to home.
Nationalize the railroads. End of discussion.
US tried that once with a quasi nationalized freight line. I think some private companies finally bought it up after deregulation. My memory is foggy
The US should just nationalise its railway tracks like literally every country in the world has done by now.
Thomas the tank engine isnt happy about this
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Well, you nailed it.
A couple of points... 1) BNSF Railway, a major freight carrier, has not fully implemented PSR-it is not universal. 2) PSR can mean many things, some problematic (i.e. staffing, train makeup, etc. ) but there are some benefits as well. 3) Yes, there are accidents and injuries on the railroad. However, for handling 28% of U.S. ton-miles, a measly 341 derailments is remarkable. In fact, the 2019 accident rate is 30% down from 2000. Employee injury rates are less than grocery stores; they've fallen 46% from 2000. 4) Shipping by rail is cheaper now than at virtually any time before. Rates are down 43% per ton-mile from 1981, immediately after the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the industry. 5) Railroads invest 19% of earnings in infrastructure, or about 6x the average American industry. At the same time, they're paying taxes that go to build infrastructure for their competitors!
The rail network is adjusting to a rapidly changing economy, but it undoubtedly remains the safest, cleanest, and most efficient means of land transportation. Just look at trucking's statistics!
The people speaking up will just be fired...
instead of fixing it they will blame russia or china
Or immigrants, or the culture war
Iowa just had a derailment
I worked for a Canadian railway company and in my 1 and a half years there I went to about 7 derailments personally. Rail industry in North America is extremely unsafe and Quebec should have been a wake up call but instead it was ignored and sadly more people will continue to die unless we change.
So they will come with the solution autonomous trains
I had a Union Pacific train derail and crash about a block from my home in rural WI. They got the tracks back up and running within a couple days, but waited over a month to repair the intersection it destroyed and another six months to remove the wrecked train cars from my neighbor's field
Talk about prioritizing their income vs peoples safety
They did the exact same thing here in Cali couple of years ago.
Oh, and one car left ripped open in the field was full of rock salt. Six months, leaching into an agricultural field
@@samanthanewport6709 horrible
@@samanthanewport6709 What was the saying about plow your enemies fields with salt? I think that your neighbor might have a case for litigation against UP.
Very accurate reporting because a major derailment just happened and spilled toxic chemicals, less than a month after this video was posted. Credibility points earned.
I will never understand why individuals are so greedy. I mean its TRULY ridiculous.
This whole PSR crap honestly is going to be the absolute biggest downfall of railroads across the nation. As stated in the video, derailments have become MUUUCH more frequent since PSR has been put in place. Employees and or railroad crews have been furloughed left and right. Some never make it back to their workplace because they’re eventually just let go. Several of my friends are railroad employees and I have seen first hand what they’ve been going through. You can literally go weeks without work due to being furloughed by your railroad employer. Some of them just move on and never return because it’s such an unstable career nowadays.
Ohio: This didn't age well
As an engineer for the NS. I see NO lies told here.
Whenever I hear a "whistle" blow, I say, "Somebody is driving an injin."
I’d say it’s pretty much impossible to ignore now
It's a shame too. The US used to have the greatest train network, probably ever. It's probably the single biggest factor in the success of America. Yet now they are reduced to second rate freight transport, and probably the worst way to travel from place to place.
It's a shame too. With proper vision, knowhow, and actually giving a single damn and a shred of integrity, trains in America could be so much better.
This is far more terrifying than I could’ve imagined.
Thank you for speaking out on this. It needs to be revealed!
It's called greed over safety
Uphill slow, downhill fast
tonnage first, safety last.
Waiting for people who has just learnt basic economic theories can’t wait to look like experts be like:
*But privatisation improves safety and efficiency*
Tell that to the Socialists/Marxist in the old Soviet Union. If you're not old enough to remember, look up Chernobyl for how the Socialist/Marxists handle things. At least Capitalism yields the necessary profits to maintain things when it is done properly. Socialism Sucks!
@@snowcrest7863 look at how the capitalist Japan handled Fukushima. The Soviets handled it better in the 1980s than Japan did in the 2010s. And lol look another economic theorist claiming that capitalists taking 5% of their profit for maintenance is so generous of them😵
Excessive centralization of organizational structure and leadership- and lack of hands-on work in the areas management or administrative decisions impact- leads to poorer efficiency and safety in practice. This applies whether the organizational structure is state or private or union or church or ice-cream social; it's more a function of human behavior than abstract sociopolitical or economic principles.
Indeed, here with railroading, you see it go to pot after decades of significant and unrelenting consolidation and conglomeration from the latter half of the twentieth century on, that trend also further and further distancing upper management from front-line operations. (Management need not necessarily *agree* with or *cater* to low-level employees, but they ought to be intimately familiar with base-level and regular operations and tasks. Otherwise, they don't actually manage so much as they wave hands imperiously and demand their whimsies. That is typically a big part of what kills most large businesses, if they're allowed to die and not instead propped up by subsidy or regulatory capture.)
Anthropologists and behaviorists that study humans and other apes have a wealth of knowledge relevant to this matter. Larger social groups or hierarchies are usually slower to adapt beneficially to changing conditions- and conditions are *always* changing, it's just a matter of how much and in what ways.
Socialism (in its many and varied stripes) offers no panacea for this issue with overt and immediate state-ordered centralization and conglomeration. (Some variants are state-controlled directly, others offer a theoretical notion of property but will immediately remove it from anyone who strays from state policy and redistribute it to other who will oblige. China is a good contemporary example of the latter general approach.) Capitalism absent a distinct notion of free markets and competition (with which 'capitalism' may or may not be associated- take industry cartels, for instance) is also no salve, and tends to lead to private but still excessive centralization and similarly poor management.
A committee is a committee; an inflexible and unrealistic five-year plan is a terrible idea, be it to satisfy the party or the board or the shareholders. C-level execs totally insulated from what they think they're commanding are generals pushing tanks around a map thousands of miles from the battlefield are commissars, in all consequential terms.
Fun fact from a railroader. Derailments are only reported to the FRA if damages exceed $1 million dollars. Far more happen than anyone outside of railroading knows about.
Hi, there, Brother, I'm disappointed that most derailments go unreported. Is there a law and or some other motive that causes the public to be deprived of news this important?
@@MrJuvefrank It is an FRA mandate that requires only a certain level. Otherwise I assume the paperwork alone would be overwhelming to them.
glad Im working in a german speaking country. Safety standards are extrem comparing to the US. For example the airbrake has to be tested every 6hours and when its freezing every 3 hours on every single wagon of a train. Technical inspections happen everyday. Because of all the precautions we pretty much never have any major problems.
PSR is killing the railroad. I definitely noticed a change in conductor/Engineer attitudes while listening to traffic on the scanner since companies have started to do PSR
The negligence to use "Trainwreck" as a pun in the title astonished me beyond belief.
It’s Vice... not the sharpest or funniest news agency out there
maybe they felt like using the word train twice didn't sound good
The changed the title lol
Trainwreck is good weed great smell
@@rongike "The US Railways are a literal Trainwreck"...
Give me a Salary.
Wait, a company endangering people for profits? That almost never happens.
I had a copy of the federal regs on Rail equipment safety and inspection . I was personally told by more then one manager that having a copy of that book was putting a target on my back . I saw numerous times in my time where we were told to do things that violated the rules . I had a train that exceeded the coupler limits , and I went to the Yard master ( manager ) and was told I was wrong and misreading the rule . I then went to his boss , because I was right , but the manager went along with the Yard master . When the rule clearly stated the tonnage behind the last locomotive connected to the train could not exceed a certain tonnage . The train would need be to be switched around to make it legal by the rule to proceed over a mountain pass we would travel over . Having been ordered by these two managers to depart with a train I knew for a fact was illegal , I called my immediate supervisor who was in charge of this territory . I told him the facts and he agreed , but he was out ranked by this other manager and told me I had no choice but to take the train , I could not disobey a direct order . I would face being fired . I knew that we needed to move 7 of the cars at the head end of our train behind some engines located in about the middle of our train ( DPU helpers ,,, remotely controlled from the lead engine and the front of the train ) This would make our train legal , but being ordered to go put all the responsibility on the manager ( well you hope ) We departed the station and made it to one of the steeper sections of our route to get over this mountain pass , and 7 cars back in the train the couplers snapped apart , exactly where I had told the manager that this car had over the allowable tonnage ahead of it and these 7 cars needed to be moved . Now my supervisor told me to leave a copy of all my paper work on his desk so that he could prove his case to the Superintendent that this manager was willfully violating the rules . One of many examples of exactly what this video is saying that managers are doing daily . The rules are there till they are late on the train departing and then the rule book goes out the window and your told do whatever you have to do now . Meaning forget that rule book .
I wonder if there were an alternative to freight trains moving oil through the USA and Canada but some how got blocked... hmmmmm, wish there were.
Pipelines?
You guys hit the nail on the head with this one, PSR is a scary practice that already has shown it will not work in anyway but to fill the pockets of those at the top. They make trains so long anymore on purpose that the safety devices used to monitor air pressure at the back of the train that run over UHF Radio Frequencies can't communicate with the engine. Not to mention how it has negatively effected smaller railroads and the customers they serve. Needs to be brought to the people in charge now before its too late. We don't need another Lac Megantic.
To the people always wanting less government regulation and supervision, this is just another example of how this country needs so much more.
It's weird because you don't want government in everything but it's shows when you let private companies do whatever they ALWAYS pick profit Over safety...but at the same time are government is also very slow, inefficient, and corrupt too...so pick your poison
The best thing to do is do what they do with conrail and make a federal mandated system like conrail. Let the government take control. I work out here and love it but at times i scratch my head. The FRA needs to make a limit on how ling trains can be in certain regions.
I too was a Carman with the L&N (Louisville/Nashville) which became the SCL (Seaboard Coast Line) from 1974 - 1981. I worked both the Rip Track (shop) making repairs and the Yard doing inspections and lacing hoses and giving brake test. I worked my weekend shifts as the "write up man" inspecting cars that been "ripped or tagged" in the yard and wrote a more detailed assessment for repairs. It got to be that the General Foremen and Foreman were not there to make sure work done correctly but to push those cars through the shop and back on the road. Also worked train wrecks with a dedicated 200-ton crane on wheels complete with its own sleeper with showers, cook/dining and tool car (fully stocked, dispatchable within a two hours’ notice. It had a dedicated crew, but you could work the from the extra board if a regular decided not to make a trip which I did often. My regular shift was at night so I could make time and half working days, sleep at night and still get paid. They took that away for us and stated to gradually farmed out the wreck clearing to an outside crew with dozers. (workers were white boys, skinny and dirty looking (no offense) working dangerously for less money) During the mid-70's we experience a high number of multiple car derailments: 30. 40 , 50 cars. Never go an official explanation as why. About the same time, they were beginning to insist that we do less work on the cars and wanted us to do rolling inspections on trains entering the yard. It got the point where one train "721" out Chicago area heading south to New Orleans did not stop at the yard just roiled through; we were supposed to watch for something "major defect" otherwise let it go...called a hot train...money maker...all piggyback. after I left, I would hear from my fellow workers that "everything is changing, jobs cuts, less road repairs and the wrecker was completely eliminated. Now when I observe rolling stock either on CZcams or in person and hear the flat spots after reading other comments understand why it is more frequent. Automation, eliminated of the caboose and the conductor, etc., the drive for profits above all else, capitalism at its finest is the ruin of U.S. business. America will never be great again if it ever was because it is businesses and systems do not care about people. It would be one thing if this governance system somewhat operated as it was designed but the founders should have known better that politicians and bureaucrats are subject to be swayed by power and money because it was happening before and during their watch. Who can stop it? Is there no end? Are we all helpless bystanders, silent witnesses to our own undoing? The love of money is the root of all evil.
We're close to a tipping point in history, and I fear that we may plunge into a dark age within the next decade or two, maybe even less; the likes of which not seen since the bronze age collapse.
We live in a world that day by day is made more and more by humans, but not *for* humans.
Our world is *desperate* for a paradigm shift, we're hurtling towards destruction and those on top are too bloody complacent to do anything about it, too wrapped up in their own self-importance, too disconnected from a person to even see themselves as human any longer. This isn't just a matter of toppling the tower, because power vacuums will always lead to someone else taking up that space-- but at this point that tower needs to fall either way just because the very ground it was built upon is no longer stable. Better to organize a controlled demolition than let the quakes make it crumble, right?
@@Starfloofle We use to say "that's deep" shows you put time into actual "thinking, a rare commodity in these times. Reminds of a bock by author John Maxwell called "Thinking for a Change"; double meaning. Seems we live in a world where decision are made without regards to the next 10 minutes, the next day or the next quarter and what the cause and effect we be on our fellow human being near and far. Appreciate the dialogue.
Are trains crashing more often? He never really addresses that question.
No.
THE WEST COAST! EAST COAST FREIGHT TRAIN!
Yes
@@tjwoodsman1782 I played it immediately after typing this.
Its cool how the two comments are Woodsman and Forest.
What's the song
@@tjwoodsman1782 What song?
We need follow ups to this story. Keep on it, this is very important.
Here’s the real kicker. We are unionized but do NOT have the power to strike when unsafe or unfair dealings happen
I won’t name the railway I worked for because they actually treated me decent. But I can say this - 70% of our workforce had less than 5 years experience .. this is a very serious issue..
We were considered a top notch repair facility... and they closed our facility anyway..
Another thing PSR does is increase train length. Statistically, the longer and heavier the train, the more likely it will derail.
Meanwhile we drive across bridges and roadways that have been out dated for 20 years, then forced to pay for a light rail system that goes over budget time and time again and then we vote against it and politicians say we have no choice pay up sucker
I don't understand how an owner of a highly successful business wouldn't want innovation but instead hide behind ripping people off.
Time to nationalize the tracks and lock those CEOs up🇺🇸.
Nationalization ain't gonna' happen, but pass national regulations to fix these issues in the RR industry.
Nationalize part was done long ago(railway express)
@@guysumpthin2974 REA (Railway Express Agency) has been gone for decades.
They should at least nationalize the tracks by purchasing it. Treat it like the public road instead of privately owned property. At least that how they do it where I live. The tracks are government owned, just like roads. Train companies pay their right of way to use it.
Don’t be surprised that many major train companies will be nationalized because soon the tracks and safety will get so bad that someone will step up. Now I wanna know how long that is.
The United States does not nationalize
The people who can make a difference always drag their feet on anything that prevents casualties. Just look at how long we've been waiting for gun control laws. 😣
@@el4242 Except that has been proven to not work. Look at California and Detroit. Extremely high gun control, still has tons of murders and gun crime.
@@cakearmy_maxgaming6346 Having to wait 10 days in California counts as “extremely high gun control” now?
back in 1970s The government made Conrail a publicly funded private Corporation. In Vermont government owns most of the tracks
1 minute 24 seconds = 84 seconds.
Using Preferred walking Speed = 4.7ft/second
A 100ft car would be 21.3 seconds to walk the length of it. 42.6 seconds to walk both sides.
That alone is over half the allotted inspection time.
You forgot to mention the union thugs that are employed by these companies. The whole thing is one massive shitshow.
The only difference between this and EVERY other company in the United States is that this one just happens to be a mile long and 18,000 tons.
More like 2 to 3 miles long, it's getting stupid!