Fred Frailey's Sunset Route "Flyover"

[Anonymous]

Hi Stelli,
The Sunset route is currently the worst part of the UP crew shortage. That is probably causing a good deal of the dead trains you're seeing.
- Stack

[Anonymous]

I would abolish NAFTA with us losing all the Jobs

DOGGY

[Anonymous]

On another fan site, your man Frailey describes flying over the Sunset Route and noting the symbols parked or moving. Me thinks he was either at UP DS center in Omaha, or eyeballing someone's Digicon laptop (or whatever system UP uses). Anyway, I was down there in flesh and blood the first two weeks of April and can report this. Gila Line had trackwork contributing to the slowdown, and trains were parked in quite a few sidings. Dog catching efforts were more dramatic than any parked trains. Some eastbounds were going dead just a few miles short of Tucson, and were being patched by crews driving clear over from Yuma. A couple of manifests sitting dead on the east half of the Phoenix Line, too. Over on Beaumont Hill, there was a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam of westbounds one day, and then everything was clear and fluid a few days later. Please get Frailey to break through that Route 66 barrier and check out the traffic and congestion up here on the northern transcons, not to mention UP's other NAFTA connection.