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For as long as I can remember, any time the topic of railroad train service employment came up, the first thing to be mentioned was the lousy hours and days off.  It has always been complaint number-one.  That has probably been the case for over a century.  So one has to be skeptical when science and medicine suddenly discovers that irregular work schedules are a deadly serious health and safety hazard.  Not saying that the science is not 100% pure and true, but it is an interesting coincidence that it just so happens to be a scientific conclusion that gives labor the one thing they want most.  Even if the problem is never eliminated, it is at least a reason to be paid more, or given the same pay for fewer hours.       <o:p></o:p> I can recall not too long ago, there were no theories about night shift fatigue being related to schedule irregularity going back several days or weeks.  That had simply never occurred to anyone.  The only obvious explanation for being exceptionally tired at night was not getting enough sleep during the previous day.  And because the rest of the world was up and running during the daytime, it was easy to get caught up in that flow, getting things done that needed to be done, and not get enough sleep as a consequence.  So the general belief was that the main problem with night work was relatively greater difficulty of sleeping during the day.  But basically, everybody believed that if you got sufficient sleep during the day, there would be no difficulty in staying awake at night.   <o:p></o:p> But now we know that is not true.  Deadly sleep disorders can have a cause that has nothing to do with how much sleep you got the day before.  Instead, they can be caused simply by the fact that you work at night and sleep during the day.  Or they could be the result of a varying work schedule for the last few weeks.   Both of these scenarios can cause deadly sleep disorders in people who have never had any lack of sleep.   <o:p></o:p> So, to me, it seems like the proponents of workplace safety have handed the railroad industry the biggest bombshell ever.  The industry has no choice but to deal with it.  They have to fix the problem that their scheduling causes.  The NTSB has told us that the problem caused the death of the crew last year in the Iowa collision.  It is too bad it took over 100 years to discover the problem.  I wonder how many other deaths have been caused by railroads forcing their people to work nights.
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