Q Wrote:
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> Maximum Throughput? maximum availablity? It's
> more like None-put and non-availability, if you
> happen to be the customer that is turned away for
> days at a time. The customers couldn't care less
> about your fancy new track machinery or new "out
> of face" maintenance needs. They just want their
> stuff sent to market, or their people transported
> - on the day THEY want it done. So how "optimum"
> is it if you have to turn business away to
> actually be able to use your fancy new optimized
> track machines?
>
> A common lament heard here and there, used to be
> "If it weren't for all those pesky trains, we
> could keep the track in perfect shape!".
> Nowadays, they make all those pesky trains go away
> for days at a time - and still it aint' perfect -
> risk of sun kinks and all when it ain't even 100
> degrees outside. That happens because they now
> have to put the track down when the 'preplanned
> maintenance window' dictates - not when the
> weather is right - hence temperature stresses are
> not balanced - hence greater risk of sun-kinks.
> How the he!! is that 'Optimum"?
>
> Of course if some bigshot heard that pesky train
> lament, you would get your hardhat yelled off your
> head; or if he was kindly enough, he would
> explain that the railroad does not get paid for
> purdy track; but it DOES get paid for hauling
> stuff (and people). Running trains makes money,
> while fixing track spends it - hence the priority
> was to keep the trains rolling, even if needed
> maintenance cost a bit more and was harder to do.
>
>
> Turning revenue producing business away, just so
> that track gang manpower can be sharply reduced
> (ie, lost jobs), and over-mechanizing the process
> so much (more lost jobs) that trains can't keep
> running; is penny wise and pound foolish in my
> opinion. Every time you give away business by
> default like that (or for any reason); that
> business doesn't just wait around for you - IT
> GOES SOMEWHERE ELSE ! And usually stays somewhere
> else! It's Gone! Sadly, UP has done that by the
> megatons in the last two decades.
>
> So when a company continues to behave this way,
> even while their market share continues to shrink
> - even with all the natural advantages that
> railroads have - don't you suppose that IS
> "Utterly Pathetic" behavior.
>
> If you were a stockholder with any brains, you'd
> certainly think so. If you were a customer (brains
> or no), you'd know so! If you were an employee
> with any brains, you'd certainly be concerned
> about your future - and the "Utterly Pathetic"
> reasons it may be in jeopardy.
>
> Perhaps you will notice the pathos - After you've
> sat in the bread line across the way - watching
> all those trucks come out of that factory you used
> to switch. Yes - for the last two decades, the
> overall behavior of the UP has been Utterly
> Pathetic (of course, they ain't the only ones)!
>
> Even more pathetic, is what it will ultimately and
> inevitably lead to - and has already to some
> extent (one more nail in America's economic
> coffin).

Yikes! All this is gonna happen because UP declined to operate a railbuff special? Wow! And what about KCS? They declined it first.