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The modern railway jobs, thanks to Hunter Harrison and PSR, are terrible by modern standards. Extensive over-work, safety issues, and constant cost cutting pres

The modern railway jobs, thanks to Hunter Harrison and PSR, are terrible by modern standards. Extensive over-work, safety issues, and constant cost cutting pressures while making longer and longer trains. Even while I’m searching for jobs currently, getting involved in that industry again is appalling. Source: worked at a railroad safety engineering firm (preemption and crossings)

mpclark 2y ago
I’ve recently changed career in the UK — I’ve gone from web dev to a passenger train conductor/manager. The conditions are excellent, the money is terrific for the work involved, and overall the experience is very rewarding. I couldn’t be happier.
- fransje26 2y ago
  I know someone who did the same in the Netherlands and he couldn't be happier.
- ForTheKidz 2y ago
  Who on earth would downvote this comment? If I could choose a social media with no downvoting, I would. It always starts with good intentions and ends up with "this comment pisses me off and rather than reply I'm going to pretend this is a distracting take". Off-hand downvoting seems to simply double the popularity effect of voting and exacerbate reduction in diversity of opinion. Daily I see flagged comments where I can't think of a single reason why a comment was flagged outside of unpopularity. Daily, posts that flagrantly violate the rules hit the front page. Plus, I can't say the ranking of comments actually does anything positive for the site. Ordering by most responses would likely be as effective. After twenty years of trying to justify scoring commentary I simply give up. This isn't a commentary on moderation, btw—dang is excellent. this sort of forum is just essentially broken at a community-consensus layer. I have just come to seriously resent downvoting. I don't think it does anything positive for the site and mostly acts as a wet blanket for opinions unorthodox in silicon valley. I certainly don't see it as the bulwark between us and civility.
  - LikesPwsh 2y ago
    Downvotes help clear out false but emotive posts. The sort of "gangs of [minority] on murder spree in [town]" posts that get so much traction on Facebook. Even if most people dismiss it out-of-hand, it's so inflammatory that the gullible are much more likely to interact and you get exponential spread. Maybe HN is just better than that, but I see it as a major differentiator of Reddit vs Facebook.
- pjc50 2y ago
  Slightly surprised by this as I don't associate it with higher pay (although is it ASLEF?) but I do associate it with the risk of dealing with late-night customers. I guess these conditions bother different people to different extents.
ForTheKidz 2y ago
I'm assuming Biden was actively lobbied by many, many interests to stomp on the railway worker strike a couple years ago. Do you think there's any weight to that?
AnimalMuppet 2y ago
What does "preemption" mean in this context? (I know what crossings are.)

mpclark 2y ago

I’ve recently changed career in the UK — I’ve gone from web dev to a passenger train conductor/manager. The conditions are excellent, the money is terrific for the work involved, and overall the experience is very rewarding. I couldn’t be happier.

fransje26 2y ago
I know someone who did the same in the Netherlands and he couldn't be happier.
ForTheKidz 2y ago
Who on earth would downvote this comment? If I could choose a social media with no downvoting, I would. It always starts with good intentions and ends up with "this comment pisses me off and rather than reply I'm going to pretend this is a distracting take". Off-hand downvoting seems to simply double the popularity effect of voting and exacerbate reduction in diversity of opinion. Daily I see flagged comments where I can't think of a single reason why a comment was flagged outside of unpopularity. Daily, posts that flagrantly violate the rules hit the front page. Plus, I can't say the ranking of comments actually does anything positive for the site. Ordering by most responses would likely be as effective. After twenty years of trying to justify scoring commentary I simply give up. This isn't a commentary on moderation, btw—dang is excellent. this sort of forum is just essentially broken at a community-consensus layer. I have just come to seriously resent downvoting. I don't think it does anything positive for the site and mostly acts as a wet blanket for opinions unorthodox in silicon valley. I certainly don't see it as the bulwark between us and civility.
- LikesPwsh 2y ago
  Downvotes help clear out false but emotive posts. The sort of "gangs of [minority] on murder spree in [town]" posts that get so much traction on Facebook. Even if most people dismiss it out-of-hand, it's so inflammatory that the gullible are much more likely to interact and you get exponential spread. Maybe HN is just better than that, but I see it as a major differentiator of Reddit vs Facebook.
pjc50 2y ago
Slightly surprised by this as I don't associate it with higher pay (although is it ASLEF?) but I do associate it with the risk of dealing with late-night customers. I guess these conditions bother different people to different extents.

ForTheKidz 2y ago

I'm assuming Biden was actively lobbied by many, many interests to stomp on the railway worker strike a couple years ago. Do you think there's any weight to that?

AnimalMuppet 2y ago

What does "preemption" mean in this context? (I know what crossings are.)