Isn’t there a third option that both your interpretation of the data and the letter are wrong? The letter specifically mentions the derailment of monster trains. These trains have more cargo and so one derailment can lead to a more severe delay in shipping times.
I hope the third option is a bit more of just trying to take the situation in. This is someone sharing their experience, the executives running the show have their perspective as well. I'm not sure why we have to jump so quickly to "I found data that refutes this, is this person lying or is the data wrong?". Just seems to leave out so much nuance. Feels like a very tech industry "see the data and make a decision". This situation is so human, it's about fear and whether those fears are being considered.
That data is great - thank you for posting. It looks like rail-car miles have held somewhat steady, down a little bit, except for 2020, which I assume was COVID related.
I am being a bit facetious with the fiction comment.
However, I do believe there are a lot of problems in the rail industry. With the introduction of "PSR" (precision-scheduled railroading), trains actually have no schedule, and only leave when they're full. This maximizes efficiency.
It's very hard on rail staff, because it means they, too have no schedule. They work a train in one direction, do a staff change, and then go to a hotel while waiting for a return trip. They get as little as 90-120 minutes of notice for the return trip. So it's a lot of time away from home, with very little ability to control one's schedule. I imagine that this source of frustration emerges in a lot of different places, and it's possible that this letter was one of them.
>It's very hard on rail staff, because it means they, too have no schedule. They work a train in one direction, do a staff change, and then go to a hotel while waiting for a return trip. They get as little as 90-120 minutes of notice for the return trip. So it's a lot of time away from home, with very little ability to control one's schedule.
This is a major frustration in a nutshell but you have to know that in addition to the short notice that they are about to get out for the return trip back home all the time they spend off duty in the hotel room counts (to the railroad) as time off, in other words it counts as if it totally belongs to them to do with as they please going about all their normal business. In reality they are in a hotel many times with limited meal options, with no way to visit family or to help out around the house, to conduct any of the other normal household business. Their time in the hotels is not their time at all to the point where the actual time they spend on a run (a round trip) can be multiple days and only a part of that time is compensated.
A recent text I had from my relative currently with a railroad gives the railroad's perspective quite clearly during a Zoom meeting - "Y'all hired out to work 24/7/365, we are going to make good employees out of you all."
I am part of a fourth generation railroad family. Three of the last four generations, beginning in 1942, have worked on the railroad. It skipped me because I went a different direction.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the ultimate goal of the railroads is to decrease train crew size to 1. Each of these trains will be driven by a one-man train "crew". A couple decades ago normal crew size was three - engineer, brakeman, conductor. Brakeman positions were eliminated leaving the engineer and conductors rolling the trains. The railroads were supposed to be using PTC, positive train control a long time ago but were able to dodge the upgrades to track and infrastructure in the typical American corporate way by delaying using a standard set of excuses. PTC would bring about a single man crew by automating almost everything. That would mean huge loss of jobs and a huge investment in infrastructure upgrades since many thousands of miles of tracks have speed limits that are in place due to trackage that can't handle higher speeds safely. There's a lot going on here and it's always deeper than one single argument.
I would presume the ultimate goal from the perspective of the railroads is totally autonomous trains with no human crew. There may be reason not apparent, but that seems like a much more practical goal than automating trucks and cars on roads. The track steers the train, the switches and signals are (almost) all interlocking, an autonomous train would never miss a speed change, a signal, or need to stop because the driver is out of hours.
> I'm not sure why we have to jump so quickly to "I found data that refutes this, is this person lying or is the data wrong?".
I don't think it's that people are jumping to it as much as people are trying to identify what's actually going on. The solution for "this problem is happening more often" is different than for "this problem appears to be happening more, but is actually happening less". Applying a process change for what was a perception problem might actually make things worse. It's important to identify the problem so the correct fix can be determined.
Even if this actually is a problem but the national data belies that, that could be useful in pointing towards the problem being more localized to Iowa, and differences in that area can be looked for.
