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This "safety" legislation is mainly about requiring 2-man crews on trains. The unions are of course very much in favor, but it would do nothing to prevent derai

This "safety" legislation is mainly about requiring 2-man crews on trains. The unions are of course very much in favor, but it would do nothing to prevent derailments like what happened at E. Palestine.

bluGill 3y ago
The problem should be solved with maintenance and automation. But that would hurt the union (though there would be more opportunity in maintenance.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  The biggest problem unions have seems to be that they've never heard of the Jevons paradox. They try to "create jobs" at the expense of efficiency on the theory they'll get more work, causing everything they do to become prohibitively expensive and then it gets cut or offshored.
kyrra 3y ago
As a reminder for those that don't follow this in detail: One of the main pushes of this bill would be requiring at least 2 people on all freight trains to "help improve safety". Can you guess how many engineers there were on the East Palastine train? 3. That obvious had no impact on this incident. As others have pointed out, more engineers are a security/safety theaters solution. It also makes unions happy, as it means they need to employ more people. This is a terrible bill that was reactionary at the time, and does nothing to actually improve safety. https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-crew-size-mandate-derailment-east-palestine-sherrod-brown-j-d-vance-unions-6be25c30 https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-crew-size-mandate-dera...
- zthrowaway 3y ago
  Over the past decade the Class 1's have been working towards doing 1 man crew's. But they're still 2 man at minimum. This bill achieves nothing. This is a "hey we did something about it! (please don't read what's in the bill and catch us bullshitting)." What they should be doing is looking at the absurd increase in length of these trains to increase profits for the sake of safety, and the shortcutting of car maintenance. The latter which would've caught this issue to begin with.

bluGill 3y ago

The problem should be solved with maintenance and automation. But that would hurt the union (though there would be more opportunity in maintenance.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
The biggest problem unions have seems to be that they've never heard of the Jevons paradox. They try to "create jobs" at the expense of efficiency on the theory they'll get more work, causing everything they do to become prohibitively expensive and then it gets cut or offshored.

kyrra 3y ago

As a reminder for those that don't follow this in detail: One of the main pushes of this bill would be requiring at least 2 people on all freight trains to "help improve safety". Can you guess how many engineers there were on the East Palastine train? 3. That obvious had no impact on this incident. As others have pointed out, more engineers are a security/safety theaters solution. It also makes unions happy, as it means they need to employ more people. This is a terrible bill that was reactionary at the time, and does nothing to actually improve safety. https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-crew-size-mandate-derailment-east-palestine-sherrod-brown-j-d-vance-unions-6be25c30 https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-crew-size-mandate-dera...

zthrowaway 3y ago
Over the past decade the Class 1's have been working towards doing 1 man crew's. But they're still 2 man at minimum. This bill achieves nothing. This is a "hey we did something about it! (please don't read what's in the bill and catch us bullshitting)." What they should be doing is looking at the absurd increase in length of these trains to increase profits for the sake of safety, and the shortcutting of car maintenance. The latter which would've caught this issue to begin with.