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Here in Victoria (australia) most freight trains have had driver only operation for a number of years. Trains that actually run direct from one place to another with no switching etc only need a single person to drive it. I dont know about the states but it is also dependent on the locomotive type and some locomotives arent permitted to be operated as driver only. These locos are usually seen only as a trailing unit running in multiple with a lead unit that can run driver only. Also over here the rail network has been for years goverment controlled and up until the mid '90s or sometime was when the state and federal govenments started to privatize. As a result (for one example) there is only a single direct route between Australia's two biggest cities - Melbourne and Sydney. The various rail operators all have track arrangments with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) an organisation established as an agreement between the state and federal governments. The ARTC manages the national rail network and assigns track slots to the various operators. This has lead to the creation of many rail operators here because it means you can run trains without needing any train track. Thanks to leasing companies you also dont need any locomotives or cars. The ARTC also provides dispatching for all the tracks that make up the interstate rail network with a central dispatching center in Adelaide. The ARTC monitors all traffic between Melbourne and Sydney (amongst other cities) and controls remotely from Adelaide all the signalling, passing sidings etc. Trains are still given certain priority over others (not sure how this is determined) but operators are free to compete for traffic anywhere in the country that they want to send their trains. An example of the competition on the network might be a scenario similar to this: Southbound intermodal train departs Sydney at 9pm for the overnight trip to Melbourne. This train might be operated by Toll Logistics with Pacific National motive power. At 9:30 another intermodal train might depart Sydney also for Melbourne operated by Patricks Corp using motive power provided again by Pacific National. At 10pm yet another intermodal train might depart Sydney for Melbourne this time operated by Specialised Container Transport (SCT) with rolling stock and motive power provided by Freight Australia. The three example trains would all be running on the same track by different operators but actually operating in direct competition with each other. This gets played out every day all across the country. Why could this not be done in the US? Would allow the abandonment of thousands of miles of redundant trackage, with only the tracks with the best gradients, alignment, etc remaing. Save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs would it not? Just a thought. Feel free to poke it full of holes about why it wouldnt work [;)]
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