Freight-Car Congestion Is Worrying Union Pacific

[charrison]

linkage

reight congestion has spread across the Union Pacific railroad system, especially in Southern California and the Southwest, raising concerns about delays in agricultural shipments and international trade if a solution is not found before the rail freight rush begins in late summer and fall.

In Southern California, some railroad people are calling the situation a small-scale meltdown - similar to, though not yet as bad, as the one that spread from Houston across the Union Pacific system in 1996. Dozens of trains daily are parked on sidings because they cannot get into or out of the Los Angeles Basin.

...

Citing the seasonal rush of Asia commerce as retailers gear up for the Christmas season, Mr. Turner said 965 new train crew members are graduating this quarter from the railroad's training center, 1,400 are beginning training and a further 1,600 are scheduled for training in the third quarter.

...


This operating data, reported by rail companies to the Association of American Railroads, gives evidence of Union Pacific's problems. Freight cars on line, which can be used as a measure of congestion, were at a high of 325,634 in the week ended March 19. The average time for a freight car in yards has also spiked upward. At West Colton, the major yard for Southern California, the average time was up to 49.0 hours in the latest week from 30.8 hours in the first quarter of 2003. Average train speed, which was 24.8 m.p.h. in the first quarter of 2003 and 22.1 m.p.h. in February, was down to 21.5 m.p.h. in the week ended March 19.

This is more important than the slight differences might indicate. Mr. Turner said Union Pacific estimated that each decrease of one mile an hour required 250 extra locomotives, 5,000 extra freight cars and 180 extra employees to make up for the decrease in efficiency.

Looks like the transportation industry is doing well. Lots of goods being moved to market.

 

[MadRat]

There is alot of problems causing this, one of which is simply a simple union "slow down" to punich the railways for the collective over-aggressive contract negotiations this past several years. First you had a glut of product from a shoremen strike that has yet to be resolved. You have to figure that over 50% of the labour involved in the wholesale distribution network is also within one to thirteen years of retirement (these old bastards work slower) and there is a severe shortage of people willing to work the same jobs. People don't want to work the long hours it used to take to do the maintenance plus the FRA is breathing down everyone's backs which kills productivity. (Every inspector I'm sure is trying to be the next Secretary of Transportation by playing superman. If you have seen OSHA in action then imagine the FRA as a factor of two or three of them!) Immigrant labour fills the majority of the maintenance crews since legal labourers are nonexistent - must be at home smoking their damn meth! Every transportation system, from the railways to the docks is backed up by the same labour problems. Add in the recent spats of washouts in states from Utah to Kansas, and you have alot of congestions in the railway networkss adding to the slowdown. Linear trackage has dropped in relationship to raw mileage for the last twenty-five years to save money, especially since they've banked on more durable rails in high traffic zones to move more trains on less track by moving them faster. (And the washouts are killing alot of high traffic lines in the Midwest right now!) This article is only scratching the surface to the real problems these railway companies and customers are facing.

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: MadRat
There is alot of problems causing this, one of which is simply a simple union "slow down" to punich the railways for the collective over-aggressive contract negotiations this past several years. First you had a glut of product from a shoremen strike that has yet to be resolved. You have to figure that over 50% of the labour involved in the wholesale distribution network is also within one to thirteen years of retirement (these old bastards work slower) and there is a severe shortage of people willing to work the same jobs. People don't want to work the long hours it used to take to do the maintenance plus the FRA is breathing down everyone's backs which kills productivity. (Every inspector I'm sure is trying to be the next Secretary of Transportation by playing superman. If you have seen OSHA in action then imagine the FRA as a factor of two or three of them!) Immigrant labour fills the majority of the maintenance crews since legal labourers are nonexistent - must be at home smoking their damn meth! Every transportation system, from the railways to the docks is backed up by the same labour problems. Add in the recent spats of washouts in states from Utah to Kansas, and you have alot of congestions in the railway networkss adding to the slowdown. Linear trackage has dropped in relationship to raw mileage for the last twenty-five years to save money, especially since they've banked on more durable rails in high traffic zones to move more trains on less track by moving them faster. (And the washouts are killing alot of high traffic lines in the Midwest right now!) This article is only scratching the surface to the real problems these railway companies and customers are facing.

Do you by chance work for a Railroad?

 

[MadRat]

I do work for an industry that depends indirectly on their transportaion operations; but no, a railroad is not my employer.

 

[dmcowen674]

I have proof of what Madrat claims. Just a few days ago had a 53 car train derail right at the curve of Chestnut Mountain here. Our road was closed for southbound towards Athens Georgia for a couple of days while they had large cranes pull the cars out of the ravine. I can walk to this stretch of track.

3-27-2004 Train derails; no one hurt

"We were very fortunate that the derailed cars did not have hazardous materials," Satterfield said. "Other cars in the train included tankers."

Sgt. Kiley Sargent of the Hall County Sheriff's Office said a portion of Ga. 60 running parallel to the railroad tracks was to remain closed until the fire had been completely contained. Afternoon traffic was rerouted onto Tanners Mill Road and Belmont Highway.

"The ground was torn up," Satterfield said. "The railroad bed was moved from the weight of the cars. All of them flipped on their side or upside down."
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The significance of this last sentence is that this track had just been replaced last summer by a crew. I really thought they did the job way too soon. I didn't measure but it looked like they were knocking out a couple of miles of track a day. They relied totally on machinery to do the work. I also suspected that the machines couldn't possibly secure the bed properly and this derailment seems to back what I suspected.

The track around this curve was literally pulled straight so it was like the track was just laying on the gravel with no deep spikes securing it to the ground.

 

[Jhhnn]

The UP? They're a great example of how not to run a railroad. They "solved" their problem in Houston only because they gave up a major portion of that business to the competition. Nothing moves w/o multiple authorizations from Omaha, the private industry equivalent of Stalinist bureaucracy. With their headset, they're lucky to move coal trains on a schedule, let alone manage mixed freight/mixed destination assemblages. Both the Rio Grande and the Southern Pacific, which they absorbed thru merger, had better, much better, management methods and personnel.

The same guy who pulls the strings at Qwest holds a 49% interest in the UP, so it's not tough to figure it out- looting is the name of the game...

 

[MadRat]

You're wrong about the SP; it was a fat overweight union pigshed. UP only inherited debt and headaches from that deal. I have no idea about the Rio Grande, but from the name I can only assume it was a skeletal shorthaul operation. Furthermore, you're also putting the wrong picture forward of UP; its four separate divisions with the Southern being most of what was SP and most everything south of Kansas and Missouri. They also have the Northern, Central, and Western divisions, each with its own operational management. The only centralized direction is the track scheduling, which is done much the same way the BNSF does their schedules. Hell, if the schedules weren't centralized then they'd need separate maintenance crews for each division which would make costs skyrocket. Like with any railway it has rough centralized schedules to follow backed by impromptu express traffic - the impromptu traffic is hugely profitable but its also uncommon so its not what causes congestion.

dmcowen674-

Sounds like track buckling which rarely happens from improper ballast, what you called bedding. Was it on a straight shot or a curve? More likely if it was a straight stretch then one of the cars had a hot wheel and it locked up, broke the central axle, then got caught up under wheels behind it and it uncorked a section of track. Its a common type of derailment more related to car maintenance than track. If it was poorly done ballast then the equipment would have easily caught it. If it was poor welds then the FRA will know by the break in the rail. If it was a broken axle then you have a much harder time to determine the original cause; your telltale evidence often becomes obscured. Sure, the wheel broke, but why?

 

[Ozoned]

Originally posted by: charrison


Looks like the transportation industry is doing well. Lots of goods being moved to market.

Most of doom and gloom preached around here would lead
you to think that the railcars would be mostly empty...

You should see the rail yard at North Platte, capitalism at its finest....


:beer:

 

[MadRat]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
The same guy who pulls the strings at Qwest holds a 49% interest in the UP, so it's not tough to figure it out- looting is the name of the game...

It was Sprint, not Qwest. And he already exercised his options, so no he is not the big dog any more.

 

[Bleep]

The track around this curve was literally pulled straight so it was like the track was just laying on the gravel with no deep spikes securing it to the ground.

You are a dipwad. No tracks are fastened down to the ground. Once again you speak before you get your brain started.
At North Platte Ne. the largest railroad classification yards in the world are so plugged up with coal cars nothing can move.
Trains hae to run 3 miles apart and can go no faster than the train in front of them. There are about 200to 300 trains through NP every 24 hours 1/2 of them empty returning to the coal fields in the Powder river basin. As far as I know the only stuff shipped into Omaha in containers from china and japan, that looks good for your economy.

Bleep

 

[MadRat]

That would be an outfit called Oriental Trading Post. Absolutely huge novelties warehouse in Omaha.

Some of their outlets go by the name of Nobbies. Cool stores during Christmas and Halloween, and not bad for nicknacks for birthday parties.

 

[Jhhnn]

Madrat-

Google <Anschutz Qwest> and <Anschutz Rio Grande>

He bought the Rio Grande for a song- it was family owned, by the distant descendants of the founders, people who had nothing to do with railroading. Rio Grande assets had been depreciated for tax purposes over decades, and they really didn't know what they had. Anschutz put up $50M of his own and $500M borrowed to swing the deal, paid off the banks in six months, and still had a railroad, scads of cash and other assets all over the West... It was described as the Deal of the Century at the time... all of which allowed him to finance the buyout of the previously looted SP, make it profitable, gaining valuable routes in the process... ultimately gaining effective control of the largest RR in the world, the merged Rio Grande/SP/UP, known as the UP. Just a cash cow, now, for other members of his corporate family, who supply the UP, and lease right of way for fiber optic cables at great rates... Customers? They don't need no steenking customers, other than coal burning utitities...

Anybody who wants their stuff to get anywhere on time sends it by truck, or by some other railroad.... They "lost" one of our light rail vehicles on a special 90 ft flatcar in some yard in Utah for weeks, literally couldn't find it.... They'd originally planned to sent it to us thru the moffat tunnel, but some sharp employee figured out it was over-height for the tunnel, tried to re-route it thru Wyoming.... and it got lost...

Bleep's right about track and ballast, btw, but not very nice about it. Modern trackage is highly scientific, however, with compacted sub base and carefully selected interlocking crushed rock base, or ballast. It isn't anchored down, at all, except on bridges, and not always then. Modern continuous rail systems experience a lot of expansion/contraction, so straightaways of any length at all are avoided- some meandering is engineered in so that the rails can move horizontally, like giant springs... Some soils and slopes are just lousy places for railroad tracks, but they're there, anyway, because they still make money...

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: MadRat
You're wrong about the SP; it was a fat overweight union pigshed. UP only inherited debt and headaches from that deal. I have no idea about the Rio Grande, but from the name I can only assume it was a skeletal shorthaul operation. Furthermore, you're also putting the wrong picture forward of UP; its four separate divisions with the Southern being most of what was SP and most everything south of Kansas and Missouri. They also have the Northern, Central, and Western divisions, each with its own operational management. The only centralized direction is the track scheduling, which is done much the same way the BNSF does their schedules. Hell, if the schedules weren't centralized then they'd need separate maintenance crews for each division which would make costs skyrocket. Like with any railway it has rough centralized schedules to follow backed by impromptu express traffic - the impromptu traffic is hugely profitable but its also uncommon so its not what causes congestion.

dmcowen674-

Sounds like track buckling which rarely happens from improper ballast, what you called bedding. Was it on a straight shot or a curve? More likely if it was a straight stretch then one of the cars had a hot wheel and it locked up, broke the central axle, then got caught up under wheels behind it and it uncorked a section of track. Its a common type of derailment more related to car maintenance than track. If it was poorly done ballast then the equipment would have easily caught it. If it was poor welds then the FRA will know by the break in the rail. If it was a broken axle then you have a much harder time to determine the original cause; your telltale evidence often becomes obscured. Sure, the wheel broke, but why?

It happened on one of the biggest curves. This was the longest train I have seen in a while on this track at 53 cars with 3 engines. The first 2 engines stayed on the track, the 3rd engine was pulled off the track with the first 7 cars. The track was straightened out in this area. They are still putting down new track again.

When the engine tumbled over a couple of times down the embankment the fuel spilled out onto the exhaust and caught fire. Most of the cars had the base with the wheels seperated from the rest of the car. These were 700 ton grain cars. Luckily the petroleum tankers for the ashpalt plant nearby were in the back.

This area is also a slow rise in inclination. The train was coming up very slowly, less than 10mph when it happened.

It's a rail line that has been around for a long time, part of the Gainesville-Midland Line.

 

[MadRat]

Anschutz is the guy you said and it looks like you were right and QWest is his kiddy. But its Sprint that has the choicest of the fiber optic runs along right of ways of UP property. I was thinking Anshutz was the reason they ended up using Sprint over USWest - now called QWest. Sprint I for sure do know is who UP uses for their long distance service. UP used to run one of the largest telephone networks in North America - for their private use. Nowadays they can do much of what they need using relay towers, so the old telephone network has been largely scuttled.