Has anyone else heard any rumors that engineers and conductors from Mexico will be (after training) be taking trains from Mexico to a U.S. destination? Right now they may pull a train just over the border, but then a UP crew takes over from there. How far distance wise will these foreign engineers and conductors be allowed to operate trains inside the U.S. ?
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https://www.joc.com/article/union-pacific-wants-changes-rail-crew-rules-linked-border-crossings_20240507.html
Avocados from Mexico.
It’s laughable reading comments about how some of you think trains are interchanged at the border. It’s evident you don’t work at one of the interchange locations. Mexican crews don’t bring trains into our yards and we don’t take trains into Mexico. Trains are interchanged at the international line, not taken into either country by foreign crews. As for the comment about cats being set out for customs inspection, this happens quite frequently. There are special tracks designated to hold these cars. The system works well as is, so I don’t see it changing anytime in the foreseeable future.
@2mur Pessimistic much?
Silly railroaders , think you’re not replaceable? That is the correct sentence.
Silly Railroaders, think your not replaceable???? Ask all the other crafts that been downsized over the years.
Blah blah blah blah blah
It’s not a big deal, all they need is Fed’s mandate of bilingual Spanish/English instructions inside the locomotive cabs. Same as Canadian roads’ French/English.
@1ymg appreciate your optimism. As of right now the trains are inspected by CBP by some sort of x-ray scanning machine. That job is highly sought after by agents who sit in the air conditioned building and watch the screen. It is utterly amazing how very few cars in trains are so very rarely set out because something was spotted during the inspection. The trains roll thru the inspection scanner at 2-3 mph, that's it for the inspection. Currently after the train crew from Mexico pulls the train into the yard on the American side then they are given a ride back to the gate the train went thru and they just walk back across next to the tracks on the Mexican side of the border. It appears the next step is to allow these train crews from Mexico to go further than just pull the train into a yard track. Talk now is allow them to pull the train out on to the main line. How long until they start making switching moves? How long until a train is switched out entirely in a border town and the crews from Mexico just take them all the way to next crew swap point several hundred miles into the U.S. ? If central and south America in the next decade are to become the next 'china' as a huge manufacturing area with slave wages for labor the train traffic direction may change from picking up on the west coast to picking up on the southern border. Truckers and their non safety compliant semi trucks and trailers already operate something like 50 miles past the border. Those foreign truckers have taken over all border town in city trucking moves.
I really don't think that's going to happen. I'm not saying it can't happen, but VERY unlikely that it ever will. Those foreign national engineers and conductors would have to know the rules and regulations to even operate in this country. There's also the territory that they don't know, so they would most likely have to have a pilot with them. Once they were here, they would then have to have a driver who could cross the border with them in the vehicle and cross back. Any vehicle going across the border and crossing again just a short time later would be subject to an immediate search. Let's not forget about the language barrier. Many people down there don't speak English. The Mexican government doesn't require English to be spoken as the default language like the FAA does for international travel. Trains will be stopped and inspected before it's allowed to proceed onto American soil. Allowing any foreign national to operate a 15,000 ton train in this country without proper authorization is just begging for a problem. Plus how do you know that whoever is operating that train doesn't have malicious intent against the US? There's WAY too much risk involved for that to be allowed. So put your mind at ease. It's not going to happen, at least anytime soon!
NAFTA/USMCA has always had language for truckers to make a direct delivery with no other work. Of course US based truckers could do the same in Mexico but they'd be risking their truck at minimum so the playing field is not exactly level...
Who cares
Así ganamos juntos.....arriba!!
Well BLET should have had that squashed. Before you know it
UP will have those Mexican run all the
way to Omaha, with Vena in the seat now