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It's time for the management of todays' railroads to pull their collective heads out. They've cut back on the number of people working to save money. They've cut back on all types of maintenance to save money. By doing so, they've effectively cut the income of money they so greatly hoard. I speak from experience when I say that it's become more dangerous to the train crews to operate over much of the trackage that's left in operation. The main reason is the encroachment of the vegetation along the tracks. We can't see signals in some cases until we're right on top of them. We can't work the ground safely because of brush, tree limbs, and creeping vines. We can't have the windows open because the tree branches could easily break bones if we get hit by them. Rest assured, the Company will find that it's all the fault of the crewmen if they get hurt. It's pretty bad when one crew runs into trouble of one kind or another, and there's not another crew available (rested) for several hours to replace them. It's even worse when it's normal that every extra crew is back out on their rest on every trip. That's like working eight hours on, eight hours off, continuously. If everything works right, you'll get one day off per week. It all comes down to who's running the railroads and their motivations. This is what happens when the "Beancounters" and the lawyers run the show. But the greed isn't limited to them. How about the bonuses paid to the middle management types to cut costs? Like the track supervisor that could hire more people to keep the vegetation cut back, but wants the money at the end of the year. Or the trainmaster who doesn't want to open the extra board because it might mess up that annual family big-buck vacation. Even the train crews are at some fault. The conductors gave up the brakemen, and the engineers gave up the fireman. Now the conductors, through the UTU, are trying to give up the engineers on the yard jobs. Don't believe it when they say that no jobs will be lost through the implementation of remote control. Remember the article a few months back about "No Man Trains?" It's time for all of us to realize that the right way to run a railroad is with railroaders, not the past management of Blockbuster or some other retail business. And you've got to spend money to make money. That means maintaining the track, signals, and right-of-way for speeds that will move freight in a timely manner. It's time to make money the old-fashioned way, work for it!
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