Be CAREFUL, B N S F, be Very Very CAREFUL !!

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

BNSF, the best and largest RR in America, Is 'playing with FIRE' with these new restrictive attendance rules.

The LAST F thing BNSF needs to get into a Pissing contest with BLET, the engineers Union.

Plus 'PETE" is the sec. of transportation And Boston's, Irish Marty WALSH is sec of LABOR !!

RR's and Longshoremen R U L E !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[eolesen]

Just coming out of hibernation, Bears?

That's another story from last month. Judge issued a restraining order against the BLET and SMART back on January 25th.

Personally, I don't see what all the hoopla is about. It's a points based system that penalizes the people who call off sick on weekends and holidays more than people who call off sick during the week.

When you've got a job that offers ~$40K/year in healthcare and retirement benefits in addition to fairly good wages, it doesn't seem too unreasonable for the company to expect people to show up and not call in sick on holidays or weekends....

You go to work for the railroad knowing you'll have no life on your availability days. That hasn't changed in decades.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Just coming out of hibernation, Bears?

That's another story from last month. Judge issued a restraining order against the BLET and SMART back on January 25th.

Personally, I don't see what all the hoopla is about. It's a points based system that penalizes the people who call off sick on weekends and holidays more than people who call off sick during the week.

When you've got a job that offers ~$40K/year in healthcare and retirement benefits in addition to fairly good wages, it doesn't seem too unreasonable for the company to expect people to show up and not call in sick on holidays or weekends....

You go to work for the railroad knowing you'll have no life on your availability days. That hasn't changed in decades.

UR correct about 'zero life' when ur working on a RR.
You ALSO know that you Never want a safety slow-down by the biggest west coast RR (think LA - Long Beach - Seattle ) to Chicago !!

 

[eolesen]

My money is on UPRR. Far less weather to contend with on the Sunset Route...

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

My money is on UPRR. Far less weather to contend with on the Sunset Route...

Well Eric, here we agree. UP is a great RR, but not the biggest dog in the usa.
Notice that the most important route is LBB/LA to ORD. ( think of London to NYC) !

 

[delldude]

My money is on UPRR. Far less weather to contend with on the Sunset Route...

I thought I read something about UPRR threatening to pull out of the market due to the vandalism to their freight.

 

[eolesen]

Well Eric, here we agree. UP is a great RR, but not the biggest dog in the usa.

Not even close to true statistically...

Union Pacific (UP) is the largest railroad in North America, operating 51,683 miles in 23 states. The company employs 43,500 people, owns or leases 8,600 locomotives.

BNSF is second largest, operating 32,500 miles in 28 states and 3 provinces, employing 41,000 people and owns or leases 8,000 locomotives.

CSX is third for now at 21,000 miles, but may be temporarily displaced if the CP/KCS merger completes before CSX/PAR.

Hard to rank on earnings since BNSF isn't publicly held.

Notice that the most important route is LBB/LA to ORD. ( think of London to NYC) !

UP runs that all day long, Bears...

LGB- CHI has two routing possibilities on UP - the traditional WP-UP-CNW that goes SLC-OMA or the SP-MP that goes ELP-FTW-STL. The SP-MP routing misses a lot of the weather and is flatter and faster.

BNSF has only the old ATSF routing via LGB-IGM-ABQ-KCI-GBG-CHI and that gets impacted by weather along I-40 in AZ/NM/TX in the winter.