| I gave it a shot (watched the testimony at the linked timestamp, which was just a few minutes). Here's what I got from it, but I didn't fully understand everything: This guy is a "yard master" - the air traffic controller of the rail industry. 1. Railroads are focused on "units per train" - increasing the length of the trains. - They're running long trains that are 10k+ feet long, but we have many old RR yards from WWII era that only fit 3k ft long trains. Takes 3 hours to put these trains together exiting the yard and no other trains can use the yard during that time. - Something I didn't understand that causes train cars to derail on bridges - Some trains are longer than the range of the 2 way radios that conductors typically use. There's a procedure that involves a conductor inspecting the train as it goes by, and apparently they can't always contact the train. 2. Consolidation of terminals. - Some regional stations for inspecting coal trains closed down. I didn't understand this explanation either. - Moving yard masters to a central location and having them run the yard with cameras. Has resulted in peoples' deaths 3. Workload on people. Yard masters work 16h/day 365 days/year. 4. Management metrics reducing headcount + extra engines / equipment leads to lack of redundancy Two things he'd ask for: - Max 8k ft length of a train - Disincentivize any reason to store a locomotive |