2 ms·

How do you know this is due to overworked employees?

• paulmd 4y ago
  It's not, per se. It's due to rail lines preferring to run longer trains with lower staffing, and the long trains are less safe and operate much closer and even past the physical safety limits of the train hardware and rail infrastructure. These are relatively recent changes, not something that's been this way for a long time. It's part of the changeover to "precision scheduled railroad" as the rail lines like to call it. Rail workers being overworked is just another aspect of the this change. The rail companies don't want to maintain FTEs and have cut that to the point where people can't even get unpaid days off scheduled, and are being asked to run schedules without concern to sleep etc. And that has led to some other accidents already. But the core of the issue is this change to precision-scheduled-railroad, and the longer trains / reduced staffing that go along with it.