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| Home Front: Politix |
| White House staff are holding urgent meetings in a desperate bid to stave off rail strikes Friday that could wipe $2 BILLION off the US economy a day |
| 2022-09-13 |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #16 Warren Buffett under Obama got in big with railroad stocks. Just sayin'. |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2022-09-13 17:27 |
| #15 Don't you guys be pickin' on my choo-choos. Here's what I discovered, from a quality-based short report - I suppose many of you never heard of Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada. But maybe you remember the explosion of a train full of North Dakota Bakken crude oil In Lac Megantic on July 6, 2013 which killed 47 people in a town of 5,000. The explosion, and resulting fire, severely damaged the center of the town. The train was parked on a descending grade about seven miles away from Lac Megantic, and the engineer applied hand brakes on all five locomotives, plus two other cars. He then shut down four of the locomotives to save fuel, and left the first locomotive idling. He then left the train unattended, until a relief crew arrived. Which would have been OK, and may even have been done before. But he didn’t quite follow the rule regarding the number of handbrakes to be applied. Unfortunately, due to some makeshift maintenance several months earlier, a fire broke out in the locomotive, and the fire department put out the fire and shut off the locomotive. So the air compressor supplying the air-brake pressure was shut off, too. When the air brakes leaked off, the train began rolling downhill toward Lac-Megantic, picking up speed, until it derailed near the center of town at 65 miles per hour. Several tank cars ruptured and the Bakken crude was surprisingly explosive. The locomotive engineer went to jail. Source |
| Posted by: Bobby 2022-09-13 17:18 |
| #14 ^ but we're told they're safer than pipelines. /sarc |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-09-13 15:33 |
| #13 back in 2013 there was a horrific train crash disaster just north of the US border in Quebec. A long nearly 1 mile long train and a single crew member hauling a lot of petroleum product. An entire town was destroyed, dozens killed. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2022-09-13 14:45 |
| #12 Contingency plans. |
| Posted by: Dale 2022-09-13 14:28 |
| #11 For 2 years I drove a taxi for CSX. When I left the proposition from CSX was to remove the conductor from the train and only have the engineer on board. It would save CSX money but having only 1 person on a moving train is not a good idea. CSX would also change the schecules without any notice. I was once tasked with picking up a crew and taking them to Spartanburg. When I got to the pickup point I drove to the interstate and turned toward Spartanburg. They told me to hold up as they were supposed to go to Kingsport and be off for the weekend. I showed them my orders so we stopped while they called. We went to Spartanburg. They had to call their wives and explain they would not be home and to cancel their weekend plans. I also had to pick up a crew at1:00 AM to take them to a motel. When The train got to the pickup point they got in the taxi but before we could leave I got a call on the radio to hold up. The plan was changed. I had to take them to Russell, Kentucky, a 4 hour drive. I wasn't prepared for that and neither were they. They wouldn't put me in a motel so I had to drive 4 hours back. By the time I got home I had been on the road for 12 hours and I was allowed only 8 hours before I had to be back on duty. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2022-09-13 12:11 |
| #10 Biden can't order them back on his own. Congress (both houses) has to pass a bill first then Biden has to sign it. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2022-09-13 12:05 |
| #9 |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2022-09-13 10:45 |
| #8 Biden will order them back. No problem. The railway workers will simply move their union under the tutelage of the Teachers' Union. Strikes on! |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-09-13 08:33 |
| #7 ^ |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2022-09-13 07:57 |
| #6 Bidet will soon be able to claim "he made the trains run on time..." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-09-13 07:52 |
| #5 Ordering an inadequate number of union employees to perform safety sensitive jobs under duress - what a fantastic idea |
| Posted by: Slenter Panda4300 2022-09-13 07:30 |
| #4 Fully expect the Word Salad Chef to tell the country that ‘the choo choos are on time and delivering on time all the time ‘ even tho’ pictures show them all parked. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2022-09-13 06:38 |
| #3 /\ Biden will order them back. When I see Biden or the current administration sited as potential problem solvers on something like CSX, my thoughts immediately default to a painful fumble, or colossal phuckup. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2022-09-13 05:13 |
| #2 That is correct. I have heard 2 billion a day from CSX workers. Meeting in DC have been going on but they are not close at all. Biden will order them back. |
| Posted by: Dale 2022-09-13 03:54 |
| #1 I mean, Dems are really, truly for the working man, right? RIGHT? |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2022-09-13 03:42 |