Rail roads and their tracks.

   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,621  
We live near a major rail line and an airport. I sleep fine. The only noise that really bothers me is the trash truck on Thursday morning. Even the cats run for the basement.
 
   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,622  
My question was, when coal is no longer allowed to be used as a primary energy source, as is currently happening, what will happen to the railroads that haul it?
I think we all know the answer to that question...
 
   / Rail roads and their tracks.
  • Thread Starter
#2,623  
I think we all know the answer to that question...
This is a BNSF main line and they paid for the tracks and there upkeep. If traffic goes down it will still be there. This is how privet industry works. If they have a customers, they add tracks but customers and mines do not last fowvever so things will change whenever that happens.. Whats new?
 
   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,624  
We live near a major rail line and an airport. I sleep fine. The only noise that really bothers me is the trash truck on Thursday morning. Even the cats run for the basement.
After moving away from the Chicago area, I really enjoy not being under the air traffic from two airports, or the train horns of the railroads that crisscross that area. Early on (very early), Chicago elevated all the railroad lines, so there are none at street level. Great forethought.

Even the IC (now CN and METRA Electric - except for SE line) made their lines elevated, with the first grade crossing at Stunkle Rd (Monee - University Park). Diesel METRA is at ground level - with multiple crossing accidents yearly.

They finally made the UP (ex C&EI) crossings "no train horn", that were three miles east of me. With any kind of east wind, I could hear the horns about every 12 minutes - it was really getting to annoy me...
 
   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,626  
This is a BNSF main line and they paid for the tracks and their upkeep. If traffic goes down it will still be there. This is how privet industry works. If they have a customers, they add tracks but customers and mines do not last fowvever so things will change whenever that happens.. Whats new?
Don’t be so haughty lol
What’s ”new” is there’s NEW reasons the coal traffic will diminish.
 
   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,627  
   / Rail roads and their tracks. #2,630  
Yep, rail closures and more lost skilled American jobs.
Rail lost a lot of jobs between the 80s and early 90s. Then it leveled off until 2018, when it started losing more. There are plenty of reasons, but the top two are Natural Gas replacing coal, and PRS: Precision Rail Scheduling.

So NG reduced coal usage and hence coal transportation via rail, and the railroads themselves implemented PRS.


Coal is a dying technology for electric generation. It's also dying for heat generation.

Railroads are reducing labor. They want to go to single crew, and even no crew. Down in Lafayette, IN, there are rails that have warning signs at the crossings that the trains are unmanned.

Even if coal never wavered in usage, and all electricity in the US was made by burning coal, the RR labor would still drop due to automation, and rail lines would have been abandoned due to consolidation to reduce redundant routes.
 
 
Top