I have been fascinated with the railroads.
Posted on 07/04/2006 12:43:45 PM PDT by Incorrigible
Ping to the ghost of Willie Green!
I have been fascinated with the railroads.
Yeah. If you're lurking, happy Independence Day!
Union Pacific is busy laying new track through our area, they are adding a high speed track parallel to the old and refurbishing the old track and replacing bridges. I am happy to see the improvements and the increase in rail traffic. I think if the railroad can take up the slack we can get some of the trucks off the freeway, or at least not add more. I have nothing against trucks, but when there are a lot of them it gets scary on the road with them.
Amen to that.
If you ever looked up the stats on the damage heavy trucks cause on the highways, you would be appalled.
He would have been torn over this thread. It involves railroads, but is also an indication that our economy is doing well.
My Dad drove semis and my brother does but I'm not a fan. We've been run off of the highway twice and I hate I-80 in Pa.
I'm all for trains as Hubby is a fan. Loved Steamtown in Scranton too. Semis will mow you down. Train engineers wave. ;)
This train makes tourist passenger trips across the Des Moines River at Boone, Iowa every day from Memorial Day through October 31. They also run "dinner trips".......nice!
If one industry is given tax incentives or government handouts, then other competing industries need them as well in order to compete.
This causes normally free-market-loving companies to compete through lobbying efforts for the largest amount of government goodies.
Leading in the end to an even larger welfare state and less competition overall.
Tweaking Willie was one of my favorite pastimes! It would have been fun to see him experience the cognitive dissonance on this one!
I can testify to the number and length of trains along the "Chemical Coast" line in New Jersey.
Part of the line is shared with a NJ Transit commuter service. We've been getting delayed more frequently since freight traffic take precedence on that line.
I prefer to be on time though!
.
Does anyone think we are going to go back to railroads if the oil sheikhs keep raising prices every few months? At least we don't have to worry about outlaws on horses riding up to rob us every so often.
What's your general area that UP is woking track? We have projects going on in a lot of places right now.
A little Union Pacific info....
Route Miles - 32,400
Employees - 50,000 (and HIRING)
Payroll - $3.6 Billion
Purchases - $3.9 Billion
Locomotives - 8,000 (new $$$ 2.5 million each)
Freight cars - 107,000
Increased volumes with out increased capacity results in slower transit times. Shippers want "overnight" door to door service but sometimes you just don't get what you want. More main line tracks - more capacity in the major yards, employees with a good work ethic (good 1/3 of the train and engine svc employees "took" the holiday "off").. no employee - no trains move. At 400am this morning we have over 200 trains laid down, over 50 were waiting for a crew to mark up or get rested to run.. They are coming back now but slowly..
I think that an investment in barges and towboats might be good if you have money to speculate with. The rising price of fuel has shippers reviewing how they move things, and rail is looking better due to it greater efficiency per ton-mile. Barges are even more efficient than rail per ton-mile, however, they have highly restricted service areas and are much slower. The late 1980s through 2000 were lean years for the railroads due to very low fuel costs that reduced the cost spread between transportation modes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.