8
Parallel Systems Autonomous Pod Train is an Obvious Grift
yewtu.beSpaceX Engineers *derogatory*
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songs in order:
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One engineer and one conductor can move 18,000 tons of freight. I don’t see how making trains fully autonomous makes sense here.
I disagree that automation of rail in general is useless. It might not be very valuable economically, but has societal benefits. Rail crews endure extreme physical and mental stress, usually having no real schedule and being required to work random hours with little to no notice (the companies pleasantly refer to this as “on call”). For example, one day you might have to make a run from 8 PM to 1 AM, and a day later you’ll have to work 6 AM to 3 PM, and you frequently have to stay in hotels and crew lodging, where you might not sleep nearly as well as at home. This basically destroys the natural biological clocks of the workers, and can cause many health problems like heart disease, stroke, mental illness, etc. Not to mention the occupational hazards like getting hit by another train or getting derailed at speed. Also, look up how many rail accidents have been caused by crew fatigue, like the Hinton disaster in Canada.
That sound like a lack of effective union power.
I know some locomotive drivers here in Australia and their union has negotiated some pretty decent conditions with their company. Each week is either only mornings or only afternoons, and the start time of each shift must be within about a 2 hour window for the week. Drivers are free to arrange swaps between themselves to give themselves mutually beneficial shift patterns. Room for improvement, still.
However, they’ve also told me that drivers with a different company doing more remote work now have a pattern similar to that described in the above comment. It used to be an extended time for lodgings - enough for rest and some free time in whatever remote town, but now it’s just arrive, sleep, wake, drive.
My main point being that oppressive (hazardous!) shift patterns are a company choice, not a necessary part of train operations.