Union Pacific's 'Expediter' Lie | Railroad Life

Union Pacific is pushing yet again a new twist, spin, and narrative to hopefully gain public and FRA support for 1 person crews. ANYONE in the rail industry watching this video can pick apart the lies and the false claims easy. The time saved, the fake processes, and just the overall theatrics that they've thrown into this presentation. There's a good reason they've disabled comments! Here We Go!

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This channel for entertainment purposes only. We simply share our thoughts, opinions, and experiences about the railroad and railroad industry and full time rv life. We encourage everyone to do their own research and make your own decisions. Any paid endorsements will be clearly stated. I am an employee of BNSF Railway Company. The thoughts and opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent the views of BNSF. I am not an official representative for the company nor do I speak on their behalf.
#railway #railroad #conductor

[artkeyes]

as shipper and stockholder and from a up family , you guys are not slaves, you have my support, shut it down, ,,,I'll bring the coffee, merry Christmas,

[tdkeck]

Man, they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to make the conductor look useless and bored sitting on the train. This is hilarious. If you know ANYTHING about railroading this video is a joke. I’m surprised they didn’t depict him asleep in the chair with cobwebs on him. And…..”rare occurrence “? 😂😂

[doctormrd]

This "expediter" is nothing more than a repairman.
He/she is NOT a conductor, NOT a trainman, NOT a brakeman, NOT a crewman. I've been retired since 2006 and actually have no dog in this fight. But I still follow the rails and their problems because it was my life for 30+ years. If I was still there, I would resist this idea with all of my fight and imagination. Same as I did with the elimination of the caboose, brakeman, etc. Of course, we still lost all of that, but at least I went down fighting every hour of every trip I made. And I would do it again if I could. Sorry fella's, but as long as management comes from outside of the industry instead of the working ranks, YOU don't stand a chance in h*ll of saving these jobs. But fight 'em anyway. It's all you got!

[dwightmcqueen]

Respect to all the railroad workers. I'm a car hauler myself but just wanted to tell you all whatever you do stand your ground

[coloradomallcrawlers]

I’m a class 1 conductor and setback locomotive engineer. During a furlough, I was a commuter rail locomotive engineer and we ran Wabtec’s PTC. FRA didn’t let us run a 1 person crew like the company wanted. However, the company just said they trained security guards as conductors (they were useless as trainmen). To me, this is similar. Anyway, we had something like 55 FRA decertifications within 1 year while running wabtec’s PTC. The wabtec tech told me they’ll never be able to get it to work right as the intrinsic code has major errors. This is extremely unsafe and my plan is no longer work for them if this happens. Apparently one of our subs is getting it first… I will not be a part of that and will move to another terminal over working like that.

[crazykgirl]

Thanks for pointing out the flaws. Total truth! If they really wanted to address these issues add this as an EXTRA position to assist conductors. I get over 24 hours of held away, they don't care if I rot in the hotel. My yard holds 10, 000 ft switch to switch, you tell them you'll be blocking the town for hours if you pick up more cars, they don't care!!! This is to cut our jobs!

[jeffbuelt]

I was a Railroader for BNSF for 24 years the Railroads lie to the FRA there employees and the public they always have and they always will

[kbruns]

The fact that they produced this video like this just shows the level of contempt or disdain they have for train crews.

[bigguy]

This is hilarious! 15 years engineer with BNSF so glad I retired at 62. Had enough of their crap

[alpharomeo]

My father began working for Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1947, at that time it was an engineer, a fireman, conductor, and two brakemen on every train, by 1970 they had gotten rid of the fireman by promoting them to conductors or engineers and retiring out the ones that were older... by the 80s they had gotten rid of the extra brakeman completely by getting rid of the caboose! Now the train only consisted of the engineer conductor and brakeman, then they got rid of the brakeman by promoting them to conductor and making the conductor do the work of the brakeman along with being a conductor, today the train crew is only two... where do you think it's going now... the goal is zero train crew, and if you don't see that... you better wake up! 🧐

[gregoryking]

I can't believe the UP guy got in front of the FRA with this and even worse some of the very first words out of his mouth were about safety being his and UP's top priority. Clearly knowing how unsafe a one man crew is.🤔🤔🤔

[markmarquezsr]

PTC should be interactive with the Conductor, he should be able to access the slow orders, crossing restrictions and form B. Conductors should have there own logon for PTC this would keep the Hoghead eyes on the rail.

[b.s.booger]

As a BNSF Conductor now Engineer. It is absolutely terrible by the class 1 carrier’s to push one man crews and say they NO longer need conductors in the cab b/c of PTC. When the class 1 carrier’s themselves choose to have the PTC screen on the conductor side of the cab not functional for the conductor to use. When PTC is engaged by the engineer only, both screens are active but the conductor cannot select anything with his or her buttons. That to me is saying that the class 1 railroads are NOT ALLOWING conductors to justify/perform their job to ensure the safety of both crew members in and around outside the cab!

[erict]

Let's not forget train length restrictions... 15, 000 ft trains block crossings almost everywhere in th US!

[dennisbennett]

Dennis Bennett

0 seconds ago
I am a retired Cp Railroad Engineer.
All railroads have the catch phrase, Safety First. It is a lie.
Its all about the money! None of them care about the safety of their employees or the
public!
This is a perfect example of that kind of thinking.
This Idea was thought up by some college graduate in the financial department
who never worked as an conductor or engineer.
Glad you brought up the Hazardous car scenario. Delay in finding out that a Hazardous car
is leaking. 45 Minutes getting to the derailment sight, another 45 minutes finding that out,
Putting People and Property at risk the whole time.
Second great point, on Cp trackage between Chicago and St Paul there are hundreds of miles
of track that is not accessible by road. And if there is do they now have to keep them plowed in
the winter? good luck with that!
Most of the trains now are 2 miles long. try walking that on gravel from a truck, only to find out
you need to go back to your truck to get some tool or knuckle.
What about the Expediter fixing the knuckle but never walking the train on both sides
before or after the repair?
Air coming up at the rear he asked, ok everything must be OK.
highball!
No!
The train must be walked both sides from the rear all the way to the engine!
Great point about engineer not leaving the seat to use the toilet!
What am I supposed to do? Wait for a stop in a siding?
Nope, I would be telling the dispatcher every 2 hours or so I will be stopping the train
to use the toilet!
One trip leaving Milwaukee, Wisconsin headed to Chicago Conductor had symptoms of
a heart attack. I notified the dispatcher that we would be stopping at 7mile road and needed
first responders to meet us there as soon as possible!
Dispatcher responded: Can't you just make it to Roundout, Illinois?
Roundout was more than 50 miles away!
My reply was: Yes we can do that, cancel first responders and order the
Coroner to go to Roundout!
Dispatcher response: OK Great, appreciate that!
No delays on his shift!
Yup, Safety First!
They did try to go to 1 man crew years ago, Wisconsin told them it would be illegal
to even test the Idea.
Hope they are not Lobbied into changing their Position on that!
God Bless all you Railroaders out there.
Putting up working at their whims, poor scheduling, never having enough Engineers or
conductors, away from home 40 hours or more, home only 8 hours (now it is 12)
working over your miles, canceling your vacation, putting in claims just to have
some arbitrator side with the Railroad for breaking the contract and settling for pennies on the
Dollar, all things that I hear still are normal railroad operating procedures!
Wonder why they cant get people to work on the railroad?
The retirement is ample, yes ample, not great.
Hang in there and wait for your Ample.
Oh and if you earned Social Security they will give that to Railroad Retirement
to subsidize your Railroad Retirement Payment!
Sounds fair to me?
Thanks Ronald Reagan, for no double dipping, unless you were in the
Military or had a government Job!
Gotta go and spend time with my Family on this Christmas Day.
Only since being retired am I able to make plans for any Holiday!
Dennis

[johnathangore]

1.) it looks like this will become a very isolated job for both the conductor and engineer.
2.) As a conductor walking on the ground, I typically catch and repair other defects that may cause a delay later in the trip.
3.) Curves with crossings at grade exist. Perspective is everything. What the engineer doesn’t see or sees to late may cause even more fatalities. The control stand is huge, and it’s likely that the engineer’s line of sight is limited and that’s if the engineer is looking up instead of monitoring their several screens.
4.) Incase of a debilitating health issue, how will the train stop to provide the engineer with emergency medical aide if the train has a proceed indication which would prevent the train from stopping until the alerter kicked in. No one would know what’s going on until it’s to late.
5.) Terrain, weather, traffic, dispatching, permanent speed restrictions, hazmat, train makeup and communication will affect how well a train moves. Everything isn’t a bulk commodity.
6.) Work in route is a real thing for manifest trains. How many expediters / Master Conductors will there be available if that train has multiple stops on a 170+ mile trip?
7.) PTC cuts out randomly, PTC integrated with trip optimizer works 50ish percent of the time, hot wheel detectors fail so often that I get alerts from other train crews regarding smoking wheels and have never been alerted by the dispatcher or mechanical desk. Between either setting out cars, cutting them out, or doing an inspection on a car that could have been damaged in route, I have yet seen Technology supersede a person working the problem.
8.)What is the plan for railroad retirement if suddenly a third of your workforce is no longer eligible for employment? Social security is not the answer. If I get forced out, will I get my money back that’s been taken for tier 1 and tier 2?

Hopefully the FRA will understand that PTC and other technology will never be as effective as two train members in a cab constantly briefing with one another and able to put boots on the ground as soon as an action is needed to be completed.

[cl]

They won’t use conductors for long if at all for expediter jobs. They will use Carmen or mechanical with much more repair training. Possibly even a sub contractor such as progress rail for example. Being able to fix and repair multiple systems that are subject to failure. That is where this job will head.

[unadillariveroutdoors]

I’d love to see these guys try this on our line. 95% of our line has no right of ways and you have to high rail into spots. This one man crew idea is a complete shitshow and the carriers are trying their damndest to sell it.

[matthewgaines]

Agreed. PTC wasn’t created to replace a crew member. It was made as a safety redundancy system. It was meant to augment existing staff.

This UP video is a disingenuous description of the job responsibilities. If the wayside detection equipment replaces a conductor’s responsibilities, they already would already be doing it today.

The time savings they claim are both arbitrary and questionable.

If they really wanted to improve transit times, PSR wouldn’t be the theme of the day. Maintenance and staffing would increase, not decrease.

[htssoutboardsboatstrains]

Have to mention a experience I had as a "Rail Fan" getting some film for my logging channel, trains are cool and different. Was videoing a rather large for our local RR train, 75plus cars....and HEARD the defect report 'No defects" on the radio, WATCHED a car go by with a locked up axle. Just hadn't built enough heat yet I guess and the train was going slow as they usually do at that point. Called a friend who ... called another individual who worked for the rail road in a significant enough capacity and before the end of the train was out of sight, they had stopped and started the analysis process. AND they proceeded to move slow up to a place where they had a siding, cut out that car, and continued. That car sat there for a month. Point wasn't "Rail Fan" are anything other than a PITA for you folks BUT that event along with ANOTHER career ( Ex manufacturing engineer) just made me skeptical of those monitoring systems. Folks the wheel is in one of the video's should someone doubt me :)