Rough days for our real railroaders


M

marriedshades

Member
If the first of the year there has been a drop in business on the railroads. With railroad crews getting hit with layoffs or furloughed. They are hoping to be back to work in a month.
 
Sad to hear that. The economy seems to be in a slowdown. Up here the railroads have been hit by a substantial decrease in taconite and oil traffic.
 
marriedshades said:
If the first of the year there has been a drop in business on the railroads. With railroad crews getting hit with layoffs or furloughed. They are hoping to be back to work in a month.
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We actually began a round of layoffs and down sizing last August. This was not just for the trainmen and ops crews but extended all the way up the corporate ladder.

Huge drop off in coal traffic is partially to blame.
 
There is not much freight moving at all. Working in operations for a trucking company, freight has been down since May of last year. What freight is moving is moving at lower rates. Even with the past Christmas holidays freight movement was way down compared to previous years.

Maersk shipping lines cancelled orders for two new humongus new container ships and have parked a few because of the drop in container shipping.

It's not just here.
 
On the upside they are preparing for two or three new pipelines in my vicinity. The siding at Carlton saw a string of pipe flat cars arrive early this week and the trucks are beginning to haul them out for staging.

We have some farm fields scattered around the area that have been converted to staging areas.
 
I don't work for the railroads. I work for IBM and they have had losses the past 7 quarters.

They are making us take furlough days off without pay. I took a total of 35 furlough days in 2015. It really sucks!
 
Around here, we still have not recovered from the last financial collapse, and suddenly we may be in a new one. No wonder everyone is so mad and confused.
 
G'day...Just as well you don't live here in my state in Australia , Tasmania...We have lost lots of rail services since the 1970's and only in very recent times has the low ebb finished. There are signs now of a slight improvement...but about 400 million dollars had to be spent to get that slight uptake...as for Obama being clueless..An observation from a distance if I may...I think the first African American President will be well served by history...once the dust settles on his Presidency. You still have a lot of Made in the USA still happening unlike us who have sold out to Asia and an improving health care program and..at least he has tried to make some steps on the USA's all over the place gun laws...Sorry to say but the inconsistent gun regulations are pretty average at best and scary at worst... And secondly..Give me Obama any day over that current Republican candidate , Trump...I hope the Republicans can find someone with a better grip on reality before it's too late..The USA has a great rail system that most countries would love to have including here in Australia and you have a wonderful country in general so be thankful for what you have , not what you haven't...I'll get off my soapbox now..Cheers Rod...
 
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G'day Michael....Don't do that.... Even with Trump as President you'd miss model rail too much...Surely the Republicans will see another candidate come through..Cheers Rod
 
I'm in the heavy infrastructure field, we are still a mess since the collapse. Far too much of the recovery money went to crap like asphalt paving, chipseal and painting. All that does is put off real work and fund another mansion for oil company execs.
 
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