Shortlines

[Anonymous]

I work for a shortline railroad that runs seasonal passenger trains, and this is a question that is always coming up: when the passengers are around, should we "play the part" and satisfy them with the idea that trains were nice while they lasted, and I'm pretending to be "Mr. Conductor" (damn Ringo Star, even though I love the Beatles!)? Or should we try to get across the message that yes, in fact railroading is a thriving industry that remains crucial to the United States economy? I've found that when I gently try to get the truth across to some inquisitive people they are skeptical, and even somewhat irritated with me for destroying their illusions about trains. My opinion is that we should do our best to make the passengers happy with their surroundings, and let them know that the antique equipment they're riding in is not representative of railroading in 2002; make sure they realize that railroading is for real!

[Anonymous]

I would tell people that railroads are important to the economy. I work on the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern and the big cities could care less about railroads even if we bring coal to there powerplants. But the small towns know how important railroads are. If everyone would stop complaining about railroads and just look at what they all do for this country maybe the world would be a better place.

[thirdrail1]

Many big cities are well aware of railroads, as a good portion of their workforce commutes between work and home by train. Think of New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, San Francisco, and now Los Angeles. Many are not aware of rail freight service, but then again, a lot of people think electricity comes from the plug in the wall and water comes out of the faucet!

[thirdrail1]

If your company is also in the freight business, by all means make your "tourist" passengers aware of it. Who knows, one of them may be the owner of a business that could relocate onto your railroad!

[BRAKIE]

Well,Mr.Conductor,I can recall when passenger conductors was called just that.CONDUCTOR.Even said so on his hat and lapel pins! The passenger brakeman had BRAKEMAN on his hat and lapels.The sad part of it is most folks only see railroads being nuisance at grade crossings and have no real idea what a rail road does or how many trucks it keeps off the roads.Some that ride your train do so because they want to see what it is like to ride a train.The thing to remember they are the CUSTOMER and to keep your train running you need them.Do what you need to do and still mention the fact your railroad also hauls freight.

[jsanchez]

What's interesting is when a dead railroad comes back to life, which has been happening a lot where I live in Pennsylvania, you'll here coments like I thought trains were a thing of the past, they told me there would never be any trains running on this line again when I bought this house, One city Wilkes-Barre tried unsuccessfuly to keep CP/NS to run their trains at only 10-25mph on a newly rebuilt class one mainline with no grade crossings. It had been many years since any volume of rail freight went through this dead and dying city. Oh well many of us were happy to see trains again, glad Conrails gone.

James

[Anonymous]

IT WOULD BE NICE.

[Anonymous]

You are very right; congrats on the progress so far on the DME expansion! Too bad so many people around here are against it! Many of them are simply uninformed...Hopefully the DME project will educate people and calm their false fears, hopefully making acceptace of future projects easier.

Keep up the good work!

jacob