[HN Gopher] AWS for Industry, but Better: The Railroad Investmen...
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       AWS for Industry, but Better: The Railroad Investment Case
        
       Author : mxschumacher
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2022-06-01 21:26 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thediff.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thediff.co)
        
       | secabeen wrote:
       | Precision Scheduled Railroading can work, but the changes it
       | entails need to accrue down to the workers, who are still running
       | on a very draining call-based system that produces a lot of burn-
       | out. If the railroads want to run a firm schedule, where trains
       | run without waiting for cars from customers, they need to make
       | the same commitment to their staff; paying them fixed schedules
       | that don't change at the last moment, with overtime if the trains
       | run late or over.
        
         | rektide wrote:
         | I've heard a lot of tension & angst from workers in this
         | industry, growingly so. One question I really don't have any
         | idea about is what kind of headcount it takes. How big is the
         | crew of a train? If you're picking up or dropping off some
         | trains from a factory or warehouse or whatever, are there also
         | on the ground people? They're part of the same union? Are they
         | employed by the people running the train? How many might there
         | be?
         | 
         | I have so little knowledge. But I imagine like 2, 3 people tops
         | working on a huge huge train. I understand that it's completely
         | bogus that the company just can't plan ahead, that they're so
         | unprepared when a delay causes the crew to hit their maximum
         | allowed hours for a stretch. But I also have so little idea how
         | many people it takes. If it indeed is like 2-3 people, holy
         | shit, these companies just need to employ standby people at
         | some significant volume, and stop being total cheapasses.
        
           | secabeen wrote:
           | From what I can gather, the current crew for most trains is
           | 2. There are no cabooses anymore, so it's just what crew can
           | fit in the engine compartment, and there is no provision for
           | crew rest or sleeping on the train. Engineers and crew are
           | swapped out at specific points, when the train arrives at
           | that spot.
           | 
           | The workers suspect that the railroads want to go down to
           | 1-man crews on the trains, for cost savings, but they feel
           | (and I agree) that that's probably unsafe. There are on-the-
           | ground people at endpoints, some bridges, critical crossings,
           | etc., and the number of fixed ground staff would go up with
           | 1-man crews, but that doesn't help when you have a problem 60
           | miles into the cascades.
           | 
           | Standby people is a possibility, but trains are often out in
           | rural, or even inaccessible places; it may not be possible to
           | get a supplementary crew member to a train without a
           | helicopter or at least a multi-hour drive.
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-01 23:01 UTC)