has anyone had any luck tracing UP trains using their customer hotline?
i have not had any luck since the beginning of August. The number used to announce where
the train was headed but no longer says anything other than the current location, and the departure/arrival times.
what a bummer.
does anyone know why the change happened?
First:
At a guess, UP like many other Companies has secure areas of their web sites. So you may have been accidentally accessing a portion of their web site that they have reworked the security access on.
http://www.up.com/
The public areas do have a lot of information, and in particular, the areas of railfan interest, The Steam Trips for 3985 and 844 have a GPS section that allows those movement to be tracked when they are on the move.
Apparently a recent addition is a list of their passenger equipment and photos of each car as well.
In order to access the kinds of train movements you mentioned, I would guess those must be accessed by employees only, and they have ID information and specific password access only. Same for Registered Customers who are enquiring about shipment information and load locations (?).
Even in the secured portions of the site, your access is limited. To view some information you must be a party to the waybill. I believe you can get a CLM for any car but to get its schedule plan, contents, etc you must be on the billing.
As for employee access, much has been moved off the regular internet portals and is only accessible from a terminal computer onsite.
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