Downtown hub or airport hub would have robots load train cars with packages and train cars would self unload packages to waiting customers at stations who would have app on smartphone to know when to be there or train car would auto unload packaes into a locker which could be unlocked with a code.
How would that be more efficient than what they do now? In particular, it would mean a whole separate operation for the populace near railroads. Most of us are not. Amazon can currently serve a potential 330 million Americans. The whole point of Amazon is you can get stuff without leaving your home/office/whatever. I think potential users of a railroad delivery would maybe number in the thousands at best. A relatively small percentage of the customer base.
Just my opinion.
Given the delays that Amtrak seems to have... I think Amtrak should contract with Amazon to deliver passengers.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo Given the delays that Amtrak seems to have... I think Amtrak should contract with Amazon to deliver passengers.
Amtrak really pushed its package service during the Warrington era and the "glide path to profitability". As it turned out, the package service barely paid its own way and contributed little to the bottom line.
Most suburban rail operations don't have the legal authority to handle packages.
Jeez, Jeff Bezos could buy his own railroad if he wanted to go that route!
Around here, both purple and brown are using rental trucks to make deliveries right now.
And yesterday, one of the purple drivers took a spill on ice under the snow and ended up with an ambulance ride. We took his truck back to the fire station, where it would be a little more secure while they sent someone to pick it up.
It was a rental, as well, so I'm not sure any potential "porch pirates" would have thought to check it out while it was at the station.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68Around here, both purple and brown are using rental trucks to make deliveries right now. And yesterday, one of the purple drivers took a spill on ice under the snow and ended up with an ambulance ride. We took his truck back to the fire station, where it would be a little more secure while they sent someone to pick it up. It was a rental, as well, so I'm not sure any potential "porch pirates" would have thought to check it out while it was at the station.
In the news yesterday was a report of a stolen Amazon truck. Why be a porch pirate when you can steal the whole truck.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2019/12/16/amazon-delivery-van-stolen-in-baltimore/
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
tree68 Around here, both purple and brown are using rental trucks to make deliveries right now. And yesterday, one of the purple drivers took a spill on ice under the snow and ended up with an ambulance ride. We took his truck back to the fire station, where it would be a little more secure while they sent someone to pick it up. It was a rental, as well, so I'm not sure any potential "porch pirates" would have thought to check it out while it was at the station.
When I was at brown they gave us cleats to slip on our boots..
I'm assuming this is not a 'telpher' system just for M&E, and is not using dedicated robot trains for the purpose. The latter would of course far better be served by 'bimodal' vehicles like a modernized Evans Auto-Railer, which could jump on and off rail routes to evade congestion and achieve high stable speed on them (which most hi-rail vehicles can't). But even there it makes little sense to use glorified Amazone Lockers when Anazon already provides and services any such location with current (and time-tested) operational capability. And FedEx, UPS, and UPS can easily and asynchronously deliver to the same locker locations using hooks to the same app to indicate time of delivery.
This would have been a better idea if it could have been implemented in the time REA was still strong and had dedicated delivery trucks in small communities. This would do just the opposite of the FedEx model: calculate point-to-point transfers in what might be a very complex network of segments to get a package loaded at, say, Gladwyne, PA to Gladstone, NJ, with a station-car hop to the addressee at the end. In the absence of pervasive and effective passenger trains to subsidize this, however, any operating efficiency would have been ruined within much the same timeframe it ruined REA itself.
Stealing Amazon Trucks seems to be a trend - Just saw one stolen in Northern Colorado then found in Denver (trashed & rifled through)
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/16/amazon-delivery-van-stolen-fort-collins/-
Sayeth Overmod- "This would have been a better idea if it could have been implemented in the time REA was still strong and had dedicated delivery trucks in small communities. This would do just the opposite of the FedEx model: calculate point-to-point transfers in what might be a very complex network of segments to get a package loaded at, say, Gladwyne, PA to Gladstone, NJ, with a station-car hop to the addressee at the end. In the absence of pervasive and effective passenger trains to subsidize this, however, any operating efficiency would have been ruined within much the same timeframe it ruined REA itself."
Indeed. You don't know what you got 'till it's gone. A tragedy really.
What I am envisioning here is that in urban areas that the Commuter Trains would unload package bins automaticly like that Lionel Toy. The bin would go to a secure area and the customer would swipe a card or a FOB key to unlock there package at the station. I saw something like this at a Wal-Mart were the lockers are auto-loaded. This is a hub to station service. The airline would load the train at the airport and then the train would go as a dedicated train or with commuter service. The authority to operate comes with that commuter trains operate outside of Amtrak control and are regulated with freight railroads.
But the question remains: why would I want to drive over to the train depot, park, swipe a card or fob, and get my package when they will already deliver it right to my door?
Because in "da hood" porch snatchers are a thing. We still have PO boxes and Parcel Lockers at my 24 hour local post office that was built in 1920 something and still has unused tunnels to the train station. Station to Station service is always faster. Amazon is the Sears catolog of the 21st Century and UPS/Fed Ex is the Railway Express Agency of the 21st Century. Had Sears played there game right they might still be around. REA according to what I read is that they tried to modernise and could have been like UPS but upper management messed that up there is a book about REA that was published in 1980 something.https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30405616936&cm_sp=rec-_-pd_hw_o_1-_-bdp&reftag=pd_hw_o_1
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30405616936&cm_sp=rec-_-pd_hw_o_1-_-bdp&reftag=pd_hw_o_1
"
From its founding in 1929, Railway Express Agency dominated the transportation industry until the 1960s. In return for a monopoly on passenger train service, the express company was obligated to accept any and all shipments within the United States. REA handled carloads of cattle, race horses, and fruits and vegetables. Radioactive material was moved on regular schedules for the Atomic Energy Commission. When companies or individuals wanted to ship something (even ten turtles) to any place in the world (even Tucumcari, New Mexico), they called REA. The history of REA coincides with the career of Klink Garrett, who began as a temporary employee in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1934 and stayed with REA until 1973, by which time he was a senior executive and member of the company's board of directors.
Garrett spent the first half of his tenure working in small offices, usually one-man operations, in the West. In 1956 he was promoted to a national sales position with offices in both New York City and Washington, D.C. His main job was to coordinate the transportation needs of the Defense Department and the emerging nuclear industry via REA. His entrepreneurial ethic--a combination of extraordinary customer service and good old-fashioned ingenuity--gave him lots of good stories to tell, many of which are related here. His last fifteen years at REA were the years of the company's decline and the decline of the nation's railroads; by 1976 the company was bankrupt and out of business.
From its founding in 1929, Railway Express Agency dominated the transportation industry until the 1960s. This history of REA coincides with the career of Klink Garrett, who began as a temporary employee in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1934 and retired in 1973 as a senior executive and member of REA’s board of directors.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title."
divebardave Because in "da hood" porch snatchers are a thing......
Because in "da hood" porch snatchers are a thing......
divebardaveBecause in "da hood" porch snatchers are a thing
If you had just left out "da hood" you could have made your same point without using a dog-whistle racist image. We both know very well what you meant by using it.
Please note that Yahoo yesterday posted a piece where a dog was discovered taking a package or packages off of a porch. Probably porch pirates are a diverse lot racially and economically. Don't be presumptious.
Porch Pirates fit all demographic categories.
Up untill a few years ago "da hood" or the poor side of town or the wrong side of the tracks in many cities was almost always poor/black/hispanic. Now it is a mix and more intragrated. The Suburban Middle Class housing prices are out of reach of many young couples who cant afford to live where there parents were. If your hood was on the border of a college campus the colleges have started to buy up property for there grad students and push out black familys that have been there for generations. Likewise some of the Suburbs that used to be nice/safe places have had there housing stock run down as older midde class couples have moved further out. To bring this back to a rail topic light rail plans that have been on the books for 40 years have to be updated every 10 years or so delaying progress to deal with the changing demographics costing millions of dollers making consulting companies rich and keeps politicos jobs safe becase they dont have to deal with the risk of actauly building something. That risk includes cost overruns,liablity,getting caught with kickbacks and changing the demographics of your district where new voters move in because of the new light rail and the new voters pull the wrong lever.
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