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UP Places Additional Traffic Restrictions

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I wonder if the capacity crisis has something to do with the season of the year? Seems to me that I've read or heard somewhere that UP pulled steam locomotives off the scrap line in the late 50's to handle a big freight bump in the fall. They were moving grain, from what I remember. I remember seeing trains stacked up at ten mile intervals on the Sunset Route between Phoenix and Los Angeles. That "meltdown" started off with a FUBAR'd yard in Houston. There was plenty of room on the main line to "hold" freight trains- but no room anywhere in a yard for them to go to. I saw solid wall to wall- or yard limit to yard limit- freight cars standing still in San Bernadino. There was no place for them to go- and BNSF happily stepped in to run in the slack. I would suspect that UP is doing everything it can to upgrade capacity without putting rails on the ground. The cheapest solution is to hire new people to add more crews. You can always "lay them off" after the rush is over. That only adds to the bottlenecks at yards, though- and I'm guessing that it's really unpleasant to be a train master or a yard dispatcher on UP right now... especially on a conference call to Omaha. I don't know if UP has a locomotive shortage. I have seen a lot of UP locomotives running around Norfolk Southern and CSX lines, though. Has UP started any kind of a recall on "their" locomotives? The push is on to get people to man (or woman) the trains they have- not to expand to new trains. In terms of moving freight, it would seem that UP would be busy expanding their yard system to increase yard capacity. Are they doing that? Expanding yard capacity by actually building on existing facilities would imply a long range committment of funds, with an expectation of return- empty rails don't make money. It doesn't make sense to build a new yard (or improve an old one) to handle a seasonal push. It would seem also that this would be the perfect time for UP to raise freight rates- to pu***he market for all it will bear. How much will American shippers pay to get their freight moved? An article in TRAINS said that UP was asking UPS to put their freight on trucks for a short time until traffic got moving faster. That sounds like UP is under the impression that the problem is temporary. If it was permanant, I'd believe that UP would be happily upping rates for "premium" freight service. They would do it if they were sure BNSF could not take the business away from them, too. Frankly, I can't think of a better time for a railroad union to strike, either. Got problems running freight with your existing crews? Imagine what kind of a mess you have if all your crews just up and left. Is UP doing any kind of incentive dealing with the BLE or UTU? Which all leads up to the question: How is BNSF doing? Are they "at capacity"? I don't think they are turning business away. Erik Erik
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