OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific is relaxing some of its demurrage and accessorial charges in the wake of shipper complaints and scrutiny from federal regulators. UP announced in November that it would charge customers $10,000 if they cancelled a u...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/06/04-union-pacific-modifies-some-charges-in-response-to-shipper-complaints
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Saw this comming, read the transcripts of the hearing the Judge was surprised that shippers could not charge UP RR when it was late delivering or picking up cars but when the shipper was ready. Judge stated: "he could fix that". Had a feeling that might be enough for UP to find additional flexibility here....ha-ha.
I was spotting a unit train at an elevator at 3am one morning. The elevator loadout crew was waiting and started loading as soon as we departed.
A conductor once told me they had pulled into a siding, owned by the elevator but sometimes used by the railroad to hold trains for staging. It was an empty grain train. An elevator manager came out to see if it was the train he had been waiting for. It wasn't. The elevator guy says he's been waiting for 2 days for his train and had a loading crew waiting, under pay while waiting. He said he would make a few phone calls. He came back and said the train was now his, and the dispatcher confirmed this.
I've noticed the elevators usually load their trains immediately, no matter what time of day or weekend status. Then it's not unusual for the loaded train to sit a few days waiting for crews and/or power. It has gotten better, but with PSR I wonder if wait times while loaded will get worse again.
Jeff
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