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Re: Cal Zeph(y)rer incident at Elko last night?
Author: Juppo
Date: 05-21-2011 - 15:51
Bruce Wrote:
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> Amtrak is not underfunded???? Ok.... guess we can
> continue to use 30 year old Superliners, and yes,
> eight year old locomotives that have millions of
> miles on them, etc. I know little about the
> qualities of the P-42's vs the F-40's but quite
> frankly age is age. And if rebuilding is the
> solution then lets dig out some old E's - they
> were amazing as well, right?
Amtrak is not underfunded. Its not up for negotiation. Those of us who have worked for them in any will attest to this. There is little to no oversight of what Amtrak management does with their money. Ignorant people want to blame unions and such for a companies' misfortunes while in the last round of negotiations Amtrak managers approved a 30% raise plus bonuses for themselves while giving 15% over five years with no bonuses to the people who actually run the railroad. I could go on and on about the waste I've personally witnessed.
30 year old Superliners are fine as long as they are updated, which most of them are. While Amtrak's locomotives get more mileage than freight locomotives on average, there is no locomotive anywhere that's 10 years old with "millions of miles." 1.5 million in a decade would be a rare extreme example. P42s are garbage. Plain and simple. The failures associated with them are inexcusable. They have a superior diagnostic computer system to the F59s, but that's about it. A complete overhaul of the F40 fleet in the late 90's would have been cheaper and yielded more reliable locomotives for Amtrak.
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> Amtrak is not underfunded???? Ok.... guess we can
> continue to use 30 year old Superliners, and yes,
> eight year old locomotives that have millions of
> miles on them, etc. I know little about the
> qualities of the P-42's vs the F-40's but quite
> frankly age is age. And if rebuilding is the
> solution then lets dig out some old E's - they
> were amazing as well, right?
Amtrak is not underfunded. Its not up for negotiation. Those of us who have worked for them in any will attest to this. There is little to no oversight of what Amtrak management does with their money. Ignorant people want to blame unions and such for a companies' misfortunes while in the last round of negotiations Amtrak managers approved a 30% raise plus bonuses for themselves while giving 15% over five years with no bonuses to the people who actually run the railroad. I could go on and on about the waste I've personally witnessed.
30 year old Superliners are fine as long as they are updated, which most of them are. While Amtrak's locomotives get more mileage than freight locomotives on average, there is no locomotive anywhere that's 10 years old with "millions of miles." 1.5 million in a decade would be a rare extreme example. P42s are garbage. Plain and simple. The failures associated with them are inexcusable. They have a superior diagnostic computer system to the F59s, but that's about it. A complete overhaul of the F40 fleet in the late 90's would have been cheaper and yielded more reliable locomotives for Amtrak.
