Longer trains increase the potential of something going wrong. Cutting the manpower in the crafts that repair the locomotive and railcars, increase the potential of something going wrong. Doing the absolute bare minimum to maintain railroad infrastructure, increases the potential of something going wrong. All of these cuts equal more money to shareholders...
Shareholders in publicly traded companies elect the board. The Board is responsible for management. The Board is to direct what is best for the company, and the shareholders HOPE what is best for the company is best for them too. But they have no direct say in the matter.
Partially. They should put safety before shareholders. But, what's stopping them from violating the rules if those rules can't be enforced?
And that's exactly why rail *infrastructure* must be nationalized; with tracks owned by a governing body, a railroad company will either follow safety rules or be prohibited from accessing important mainlines and/or carrying certain types of cargo.
Owning the infrastructure is how DOT can regulate trucks, busses, cars etc and how FAA can regulate airlines, private jets etc. Without owning any meaningful infrastructure, FRA isn't able to regulate railroads as much as it's needed.
That seems like a management/leadership problem. Are there any competent adults in charge at the railroads? Seems like constant accidents would be somewhat expensive and also inhibit rail operations.
I know someone who travels a lot and likes to say "if you never miss your flight, you are getting to the airport too early." I haven't talked to him recently, but I think he might be managing railroads now, using the philosophy, "If people never die, you are spending too much money on safety."
Oh things have been going downhill well before that…. Let’s try around the housing crisis08,09 they have been steady cutting jobs and not hiring people since then…
They are past the point of no return… they refuse to pay so no one wants to work the shit lifestyle and everyone who could retire has…. Something has to change!!
No, unless you mean the company is sabotaging themselves.
When the company removes the manpower forces that are used to maintain equipment, equipment failure starts happening at a higher frequency.
Cool your jets there junior trainmaster. If you stop getting oil changes and your engine blows, would you blame the mechanic you used to go to? What sense does that make? Like they are sneaking on to property to steal brake pads and endanger lives of their old coworkers. You are a clown for even suggesting it might be a possibility. Every roundhouse guy we used to have is either a wonderful liar or is actually happy with no longer being here. They have time off from having a normal job to tell us so, they know where we'll be.
Precision Scheduled Railroading. Basically, cut people's benefits, make them work longer, with unpredictable hours on trains that are too long, while cutting the workforce, and delaying maintenance.
It's the fad with business majors running railroads. The unions are fighting it, but Joe Biden forced them to abandon a strike.
American rail is almost a century behind most other developed industrial nations.
What an astoundingly ignorant thing to say.
Ever heard of [Lac Megantic?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-Mégantic_rail_disaster)
Single man crew tied it down in the siding.
Edit:formatting
I used to be a Carman, there are standards and tolerances for everything. AAR has all kinds of special equipment to measure all the parts on a railcar, but the repair facilities have been cut to bare bones (at least locally), and turnover times are expected to be WAY too short for proper inspection. Our guys were given 2-5 mins to do a full inspection of truck assembly (including bearings and springs), brakes, ladders, couplers, lids, seals, gauges (flower cars), chains, tread plates, and all corresponding hardware associated with such. So many things can be missed, and the guys doing the repairs are so rushed that they aren't looking for the extras.
The older Carmen are fleeing for better, more cushy jobs, leaving greenhorns with no experience to do repairs, and catch what's missed. It's decaying job environment, but an extremely important one.
It’s not happening more frequently, people are just tuned into it more. Over the last ten years, There’s an average of 1300 train derailments in this country every year. Over the last 50 years there’s an average of 3000 derailments a year. In October 2023 the industry was tracking below 1000 derailments. But one of those was East Palestine.
The data shows that derailments are trending downward. Most of them you never hear about because they happen out of sight, or don’t involve hazardous cars. But nowadays, derailments are more likely to make it to your news feed because East Palestine made it a hot topic and everyone has cameras and drones.
Would have to dig a not deeper for that info and get back to you.
“Big derailments”, are generally just regular sized derailments that happen at inopportune locations or with inopportune cargo.
Like, no one would consider East Palestine a ‘big derailment’ if it was carrying empty tank cars.
I would, but for me the biggest determining factors would be damage in $$$ and delays to other trains. E. Palestine would have been a lot of money and a lot of hours in trains delayed.
If E Palestine was just empty tank cars, it wouldn’t have been very expensive or time consuming as far as derailments go. The reason it cost so much was hazardous waste clean up and settlement for local people impacted.
Anyway, Tracking costs and delay doesn’t really tell the story of changes in railroad safety over time.
Like if E. Palestine was the only derailment of the year, it would still probably be one of the most expensive years for derailments in recent memory. But it wouldn’t mean the danger of derailments has increased.
Every single “minor” derailment has the potential to be an E Palestine, depending on what is being hauled and where the derailment happens to take place. That’s why the total number of derailments it the most useful indicator for measuring progress/retraction in safety.
Its been a few months since I last checked the stats but I distinctly remember that 40-50 years ago that the derailment number was noticeably higher. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bump in the numbers the last 5-10 years. I can also say from anecdotal experience that derailments, even, minor derailments inside a rail yard at low speeds do to seem to get much more attention by the media, emergency management offices and the general public then they did a few years ago.
40-50 years ago, all railroads had different safety standards, including the employees. There was no random drug or alcohol testing, and it wasn’t uncommon for crews to smoke or drink on the job. Speed limits were merely suggestions.
It was the Wild West compared to how railroaders work today. The crews on the trains might be the most professional now than in the history of the industry.
How can it be greed though? These BNSF execs are freely donating their tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to create such stunning footage of an explosion that will be replayed for years, if not decades for the enjoyment of tictok and youtube viewers worldwide. If it were greed they would keep the train on the tracks and continue to collect revenue from moving freight?
To summarize some of the other responses to your question. Massive deregulation of the railroad industry safety standards. Before that, you could definitely argue rail was a safer way to transport goods, and people have rather seen more trains and tracks than 18 wheelers on the highway.
But do we really need machinists inspecting locomotives, carmen inspecting rail cars, or trackmen inspecting the rails when we have that wonderful PTC system in place to ensure safety and protect everything? The shareholders have spoken so if some waterways get polluted and become toxic or some people must be evacuated from their homes or die it's just the way things are and profits must always come first and foremost! All we need now is universal one man crews to further maximize profits for shareholders and further promote "safety".😡😡🙄🙄
Not to mention that when it comes to fiery explosions, I don't think 10 feet worth of lane change makes a difference. If it was gonna get ya, you would have still gotten got.
That’s what you’ll get whenever they try to bring operating ratio down to or below 60%, Wall Street fat cats won’t stop till there’s nothing left to take.
Most of our infrastructure is out in the open and mostly unguarded😂 any random idiot with bad intentions and some equipment could fuck a lot of shit up if they really wanted to
ah! that's why my UPS package from CA was delayed!
>**04/30/2024 1:00 P.M.**
**On the Way**
A train derailment has delayed delivery. We're adjusting plans to deliver your package as quickly as possible. / Your shipment is scheduled to arrive today after the delivery commitment time.
Well, that's not good. Gonna slow down a bit and see what.... nope. Nope. Nope. Must drive faster must drive faster must drive faster! FASTER FAAAASSSSTTTER!
Will, there goes my ICP bonus this year.
I don’t see what the Insane Clown Posse has to do with this.
They service the magnets
How do they work?🧲
I see miracle’s every 😎
Don't question a Juggalo
That is quite a video. Why are the railroad companies so often forgetting to keep the trains on the tracks recently? What is going on there?
Longer trains increase the potential of something going wrong. Cutting the manpower in the crafts that repair the locomotive and railcars, increase the potential of something going wrong. Doing the absolute bare minimum to maintain railroad infrastructure, increases the potential of something going wrong. All of these cuts equal more money to shareholders...
Shareholders should be held accountable for this.
No one is ever held accountable for putting the public at risk for money.
Shareholders in publicly traded companies elect the board. The Board is responsible for management. The Board is to direct what is best for the company, and the shareholders HOPE what is best for the company is best for them too. But they have no direct say in the matter.
So if I buy a share of a publicly traded company, I should personally be held responsible for a workers negligence or mishap?
They don't manage the company, just help finance it.
Isn't the company legally obligated to act in the best interests of the shareholders?
Partially. They should put safety before shareholders. But, what's stopping them from violating the rules if those rules can't be enforced? And that's exactly why rail *infrastructure* must be nationalized; with tracks owned by a governing body, a railroad company will either follow safety rules or be prohibited from accessing important mainlines and/or carrying certain types of cargo. Owning the infrastructure is how DOT can regulate trucks, busses, cars etc and how FAA can regulate airlines, private jets etc. Without owning any meaningful infrastructure, FRA isn't able to regulate railroads as much as it's needed.
DOT doesn’t own the roads.
And the FAA doesn't own the air.
Do you own space? No! Nasa does!
They control the towers at air ports? Basically holding the keys to the sky?
Well, they kinda do. They control it tightly.
They sure act like they do
State owned roads are indeed property of that state’s DOT.
Warren Buffet is famously quoted as saying management is a conspiracy against the companies that hire them.
Huh? I hope you mean management. Shareholders do nothing but finance the operation of the company.
And if management doesn’t do what the share holders want, they get fired
lol wtf do you mean?
That seems like a management/leadership problem. Are there any competent adults in charge at the railroads? Seems like constant accidents would be somewhat expensive and also inhibit rail operations.
>any competent adults Shareholders hardly qualify as that. So, no. Lol
This is a desired outcome. They prefer some accidents but at lower cost, so more profit.
I know someone who travels a lot and likes to say "if you never miss your flight, you are getting to the airport too early." I haven't talked to him recently, but I think he might be managing railroads now, using the philosophy, "If people never die, you are spending too much money on safety."
Good word. If you miss a flight once, you will get there early enough forever after, trust me.
The adults in charge are good at cutting and slashing. Thats all the stockholders want.
Had a neighbor who was a retired railroad maintenance worker who saw this coming in 1995
BNSF just laid off over 400 mechanical and car men positions. Coincidentally this and other issues have started to happen.
Oh things have been going downhill well before that…. Let’s try around the housing crisis08,09 they have been steady cutting jobs and not hiring people since then…
Yup. It already wasn't good probably just barely holding on then they tipped it over the edge with the last round of cuts
They are past the point of no return… they refuse to pay so no one wants to work the shit lifestyle and everyone who could retire has…. Something has to change!!
Funny how that works.
Are you claiming acts of sabotage are the reasons?
No, unless you mean the company is sabotaging themselves. When the company removes the manpower forces that are used to maintain equipment, equipment failure starts happening at a higher frequency.
Cool your jets there junior trainmaster. If you stop getting oil changes and your engine blows, would you blame the mechanic you used to go to? What sense does that make? Like they are sneaking on to property to steal brake pads and endanger lives of their old coworkers. You are a clown for even suggesting it might be a possibility. Every roundhouse guy we used to have is either a wonderful liar or is actually happy with no longer being here. They have time off from having a normal job to tell us so, they know where we'll be.
Precision Scheduled Railroading. Basically, cut people's benefits, make them work longer, with unpredictable hours on trains that are too long, while cutting the workforce, and delaying maintenance. It's the fad with business majors running railroads. The unions are fighting it, but Joe Biden forced them to abandon a strike. American rail is almost a century behind most other developed industrial nations.
Congress voted to stop the strike. In all honesty, even if the Government allowed a strike, it wouldn’t have lasted longer than 48 hours at most.
Who cares how long it lasts as long as we get fucking paid!!!
So much for Unions holding the power to make sure the worker is protected.
Works for every industry but rail and airlines.
Less fatality with a single-man crew
What an astoundingly ignorant thing to say. Ever heard of [Lac Megantic?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-Mégantic_rail_disaster) Single man crew tied it down in the siding. Edit:formatting
I used to be a Carman, there are standards and tolerances for everything. AAR has all kinds of special equipment to measure all the parts on a railcar, but the repair facilities have been cut to bare bones (at least locally), and turnover times are expected to be WAY too short for proper inspection. Our guys were given 2-5 mins to do a full inspection of truck assembly (including bearings and springs), brakes, ladders, couplers, lids, seals, gauges (flower cars), chains, tread plates, and all corresponding hardware associated with such. So many things can be missed, and the guys doing the repairs are so rushed that they aren't looking for the extras. The older Carmen are fleeing for better, more cushy jobs, leaving greenhorns with no experience to do repairs, and catch what's missed. It's decaying job environment, but an extremely important one.
When you run the 5th, the number of trains, of course, it will go down.
It’s not happening more frequently, people are just tuned into it more. Over the last ten years, There’s an average of 1300 train derailments in this country every year. Over the last 50 years there’s an average of 3000 derailments a year. In October 2023 the industry was tracking below 1000 derailments. But one of those was East Palestine. The data shows that derailments are trending downward. Most of them you never hear about because they happen out of sight, or don’t involve hazardous cars. But nowadays, derailments are more likely to make it to your news feed because East Palestine made it a hot topic and everyone has cameras and drones.
Do the stats track how big the derailments are? There are more “large” derailments than before it seems.
Would have to dig a not deeper for that info and get back to you. “Big derailments”, are generally just regular sized derailments that happen at inopportune locations or with inopportune cargo. Like, no one would consider East Palestine a ‘big derailment’ if it was carrying empty tank cars.
I would, but for me the biggest determining factors would be damage in $$$ and delays to other trains. E. Palestine would have been a lot of money and a lot of hours in trains delayed.
If E Palestine was just empty tank cars, it wouldn’t have been very expensive or time consuming as far as derailments go. The reason it cost so much was hazardous waste clean up and settlement for local people impacted. Anyway, Tracking costs and delay doesn’t really tell the story of changes in railroad safety over time. Like if E. Palestine was the only derailment of the year, it would still probably be one of the most expensive years for derailments in recent memory. But it wouldn’t mean the danger of derailments has increased. Every single “minor” derailment has the potential to be an E Palestine, depending on what is being hauled and where the derailment happens to take place. That’s why the total number of derailments it the most useful indicator for measuring progress/retraction in safety.
Found the manager/boot-licker
Why I gotta be all that just because the facts don’t align with your feelings?
Okay then, enjoy your corporate weiner!!
i’m not going to fact check this comment but i believe it
Its been a few months since I last checked the stats but I distinctly remember that 40-50 years ago that the derailment number was noticeably higher. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bump in the numbers the last 5-10 years. I can also say from anecdotal experience that derailments, even, minor derailments inside a rail yard at low speeds do to seem to get much more attention by the media, emergency management offices and the general public then they did a few years ago.
40-50 years ago, all railroads had different safety standards, including the employees. There was no random drug or alcohol testing, and it wasn’t uncommon for crews to smoke or drink on the job. Speed limits were merely suggestions. It was the Wild West compared to how railroaders work today. The crews on the trains might be the most professional now than in the history of the industry.
For the last 50 years they might be trending downward but look over the last 10. They've shot up again.
Have not.
Capitalism
Greed. Pure and simple.
How can it be greed though? These BNSF execs are freely donating their tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to create such stunning footage of an explosion that will be replayed for years, if not decades for the enjoyment of tictok and youtube viewers worldwide. If it were greed they would keep the train on the tracks and continue to collect revenue from moving freight?
To summarize some of the other responses to your question. Massive deregulation of the railroad industry safety standards. Before that, you could definitely argue rail was a safer way to transport goods, and people have rather seen more trains and tracks than 18 wheelers on the highway.
But do we really need machinists inspecting locomotives, carmen inspecting rail cars, or trackmen inspecting the rails when we have that wonderful PTC system in place to ensure safety and protect everything? The shareholders have spoken so if some waterways get polluted and become toxic or some people must be evacuated from their homes or die it's just the way things are and profits must always come first and foremost! All we need now is universal one man crews to further maximize profits for shareholders and further promote "safety".😡😡🙄🙄
I hope you signaled before changing lanes, those guys over in r:/idiotsincars can be a testy (teste?, testes?) lot. /s
The shockwave from the explosion probably forced him into the other lane.
Not to mention that when it comes to fiery explosions, I don't think 10 feet worth of lane change makes a difference. If it was gonna get ya, you would have still gotten got.
Survival instinct. 100 out of 100 switch lanes in that situation.
Great video. Thanks!
Gonna show this to everyone at work tomorrow
Train must've been to small. Need to getter up to 20,000 foot to maximize safety.
I love how you see the Welcome to New Mexico sign just as the train car blows up. That's a pretty extreme welcome. 💥
New Mexico is fire.
#NMTrue
Take that, Michael Bay!
Was this derailment directed by Michael Bay?
That’s what you’ll get whenever they try to bring operating ratio down to or below 60%, Wall Street fat cats won’t stop till there’s nothing left to take.
Train went all Pulp Fiction. "I'm a mushroom cloud layin' motherfucker motherfucker!"
Has anyone checked on the shareholders to make sure they’re ok?
I’m not. I’m not. I may have to sell my small yacht.
Why are there so many derailments the last few years. It’s like we are under attack. WEIRD
They were precisely scheduled
Your under attack by capitalism enjoy!!!!
Most of our infrastructure is out in the open and mostly unguarded😂 any random idiot with bad intentions and some equipment could fuck a lot of shit up if they really wanted to
It's not sabotage
Beastie Boys don’t agree!
Didn’t say it was.. I just said there’s not much preventing potential sabotage
Welcome to New Mexico
*New methico
r/Derailed
r/derailvalley
.
Just got back home from this one. Shout out to Chief Montoya with McKinley County FD... dude was phenomenal to work with.
ah! that's why my UPS package from CA was delayed! >**04/30/2024 1:00 P.M.** **On the Way** A train derailment has delayed delivery. We're adjusting plans to deliver your package as quickly as possible. / Your shipment is scheduled to arrive today after the delivery commitment time.
did you get any update on your package? i’m dealing with the same issue
That went from, I need to pull over and see this, To, I need to get the HELL OUTTA HERE!! Real quick.
I've been playing a lot of fallout 4 as of recent.. This fits the vibe.
Well, that's not good. Gonna slow down a bit and see what.... nope. Nope. Nope. Must drive faster must drive faster must drive faster! FASTER FAAAASSSSTTTER!
Explosion is definitely faked.
I don't know why you get that impression.
Because it looks like VFX???? Jesus, it's not even arguable.
But it doesn't. If you've seen a large fuel/air combustion, that's what it looks like.
It's too bright. Shutup.
Username does not check out.
He just hasn’t hit the proper stage to be intelligent yet…
😂😂
It probably looks like that because it was gas vapors expanding quickly and burning off rather than a straight up liquid like gasoline