I gave it a shot (watched the testimony at the linked timestamp, which was just a few minutes). Here's what I got from it, but I didn't fully understand everything:
This guy is a "yard master" - the air traffic controller of the rail industry.
1. Railroads are focused on "units per train" - increasing the length of the trains.
- They're running long trains that are 10k+ feet long, but we have many old RR yards from WWII era that only fit 3k ft long trains. Takes 3 hours to put these trains together exiting the yard and no other trains can use the yard during that time.
- Something I didn't understand that causes train cars to derail on bridges
- Some trains are longer than the range of the 2 way radios that conductors typically use. There's a procedure that involves a conductor inspecting the train as it goes by, and apparently they can't always contact the train.
2. Consolidation of terminals.
- Some regional stations for inspecting coal trains closed down. I didn't understand this explanation either.
- Moving yard masters to a central location and having them run the yard with cameras. Has resulted in peoples' deaths
3. Workload on people. Yard masters work 16h/day 365 days/year.
4. Management metrics reducing headcount + extra engines / equipment leads to lack of redundancy
