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Automated train operations to begin on Australian ore-hauling railroad
Sounds like when remotes were introduced and now there is all kinds of accidents
In a Bert Pennypacker story on the Reading Railroad from May 1962 Trains Magazine, Reading President Fisher forseen the Reading of the future as being a totally automated, electronically controlled operation. However, I also agree with the above contributors about safety and cost.
More good paying, middle class jobs gone. How long will it be now untill U.S. railroads jump on board?
Maybe i am old fashioned but this seems like an accident waiting to happen!
That’s what they always say, “we have no plans for unemployment.” Well, guess what? When companies say that, they always seem to manage to slowly phase employees out of their jobs little by little.
I have a cheaper solution…pay a crew!
Good thing there’s virtually nothing around that area to get in the way! Overall does not seem like the best idea to me.
We don’t put pilots in drones for two reasons: 1) They take up too much space and weight, and 2) we don’t want to risk pilots in combat. Neither of these applies to iron ore trains. So what’s the point?
Or, um, a thousand years?
If you can sit in Nevada while flying a warplane in Afganastan I think this can be done
What could possibly go wrong?
(sarcasm)
Second what Mr. McFadden said. Spend $500 million just to lay off some low-end of the pay scale employees? And I though the US had a monopoly on no-common-sense bottom-liners. Looks like it’s world-wide.
So they’ll spend $500 million to save what, $500,000 a year? They should break even in 100 years.
Chicky, Model Railroaders have been doing a similar thing for a hundred years. Now Model Railroaders have ‘cab cameras’ and D.C.C. and can see potential dangers, and aviod them. Cann’t see much difference (apart from the weight), in operating a Loco from a remote location. Switching locos have been doing the same thing for years - the operator cann’t see the “off side” of thier loco or what is transpiring there. On top of that the amount of road traffic is almost zero, only company vehicles. Most of the rail-line is private property or aboriginal lands - both of which require permits to traverce.
Considering the remote geography of the m ajority of the route it makes sense, on paper. However, unless there is some serious redundant safegaurds in the system there is a serious risk of runaways, premature equipment failure, and other problems that may arise from not having a crew on board to make human judgements.
All it will take is one derailment or accident attributed to the system and it will be no more.
I like my DCC HO trains a lot, and I have worked with remote beltpacks in the past but you still get that eerie feeling of not being in the cab if something happens.
Will operating crews sit next to the dispatcher, or will he do the work of 2 more people.
This is an insult to skilled labor in rail transportation, even down under.
Oops, that should have been 1000 years.
No need to worry about anything like this coming here. The ambulance chasing lawyers will see to that. First idiot who goes around the down crossing gates and ignores the flashing lights and gets whacked by a crew-less train will have so many ambulance chasers lined up in a neat row that the railroad’s lawyers will abondon ship. Never mind all the self-proclaimed safety advocates taking the side of idiot who went around the gates, just to produce tons of negative safety related news for the railroads.
This is America. Home of the finest ambulance chasing lawyers, NIMBY gangs, and self-proclaimed safety advocates that money can buy.
Ah, but the little black box (or whatever it looks like) doesn’t require rest or off days, doesn’t need health or dental insurance, doesn’t require a pension when it is retired, won’t go on strike if it doesn’t get what it wants, etc., etc. On the other hand, it doesn’t purchase what the railroad hauls or contribute to the community it lives in, either. You won’t even be able to say, “Would you like fries with that?” at your next job if there’s nobody left to earn and spend a wage. I have to wonder what Asimov would say about this…I hate the idea of nationalization because government always tends to screw things up in the long term, but the idea of slaving away to make some pork-bellied stogie sucker even richer isn’t too appealing.
Wow! Look out unions! Just think if this sort of thing catches on in the USA and Canada.