Union Pacific responds to inspectors’ claims of unsafe rolling stock

https://northplattebulletin.com/union-pacific-responds-to-inspectors-claims-of-unsafe-equipment/

Responding to another FRA concern Vena also said recent layoffs have no correlation to the company’s ability to make mechanical repairs. He said the furloughs were the “result of lower business volumes, which result in equipment storage, and represent a fraction of a percent of all craft employees.”

I find Vena’s statement highly inaccurate. What about the 2020 layoff? One person does the job of three people with less time than before. A one hour 9414 FRA inspection now takes 10 minutes. I see more burnt units coming in to the shop in one month than what I would see in one year before 2020.

FRA needs to close the North Platte yard for willful violations made by the management. People lives are at risk. Towns and cities are turning into toxic waste lands.

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There was another group of railroads in the north east who continued to defer maintenance until the point of no turning back. The government had to step in financially to keep trains running. CONRAIL.

If a shop is running locomotives with 70% FRA defects like the report said, it needs to be shut down for complete negligence. Plain and simple. Complete disregard for safety.

I believe the key to Vena’s response is in the verbiage of “recent cuts”.

If the term “recent cuts” refers to the ones over the last month, then yes, he is probably accurate.

If the term “recent cuts” refers to the cuts over the prior years, then no, I believe he is probably not accurate.

The wear and quality degradation will occur from deferred maintenance over years, not months.

It seems the FRA MP&M is targeting years of deferred maintenance, not the immediate results from recent cuts. Perhaps it will be beneficial for stake and shareholders of rolling stock in ALL RAILROADS to not defer cars with overdue air brake tests or safety defects.

It will be interesting to see how the data rolls out displaying the amount of maintenance provided by car owners vs class 1 railroads.

Standing by

That's all that Vena has done his whole career is lie! The cuts made in 2020 wasn't because of lower volumes. I hate to keep playing this same song over and over, but the cuts were made to lower costs and attract more investments for shareholder profit. If it was about lower volumes then, then why did Fritz brag about record profits just before the massive cuts? Either Fritz lied then, or Vena is lying now! The North Platte ordeal should've never happened in the first place, but it did! Vena can blame Fritz all he wants, but the massive cuts didn't happen until he showed up. The truth can't be hidden forever. It will eventually come out. The rest of the world will see Vena for who he really is and the way the industry already sees him now. Back then, the buck stopped with Fritz. Now, the buck stops with Vena. Be patient, he'll sc--w it up and he'll be the one answering the questions.

Vena is a liar. The car loadings and train counts are averaging about the same as before. They need to ask him to show the data on car loadings. Today was the first time in a while I saw weekly carloading over 160k versus the 150k's. He is lying and they need to call him on this.

Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

Union Pacific responds to inspectors’ claims of unsafe rolling stock

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