These statistics are used to measure relative efficiency. How are they compiled and calculated? From what I remember of college Biological statistics, would not the median rather than the mean be more appropriate, due to the wide variation between a fast intermodal and a local freight and a large yard (Chicago area or North Platte) and a smaller one (Galesburg, Rock Springs)?
You’re on to something–it’s a corporate metric and useful chiefly for comparison purposes with past calendar quarters from that same RR. “On time performance” used to be stressed a little more in the past, it seems to me, but since most trains don’t run on timetables per se these days, it may be that “On time performance” isn’t as useful a metric as in the past. “Shipper satisfaction” is nontoriously hard to measure, too, however, and train turnaround – assuming a more efficient turnaround shows up in mean speeds — isn’t a bad thing to measure for but it certainly isn’t the be-all and end-all of progressive rail service.
Perhaps other readers have idea for efficiency metrics that a) aren’t exclusively financial, b) measure reality and c) are comparable to prior sampling??
Well, Dwell times in Rock Springs are almost nothing, seeing how we really dont do too much freight switching here. Its all taken care of in Green River now. The local switch crew even takes its cars to GR to get put on a train and most of the time pick them up in GR as well. So apart from the odd train stopped at a signal, its smooth sailing through town.
the average train speed is actuly called train valosity(sp) thats the average speed for all trains that trave over a divistion or subdivistion… as far as dwell time…thats the averge of all the cars that arive and depart a terminal… form the point at train makes its arive time…the clock starts on the termial dwell time… and it dosnt stop untill the outbound train is on the pull with its outbound departer time… they take the averge so they can get an idea of how fulid the termial is… terminls with high dwell times are looked at by upper mangement to see why they arent meeting the perscribed numbers they set for car dwell times… and the lower mangment gets thier butt chewed and try improve the numbers…its all to show numbers of producitivy …the lower the times… the more productive the termial is…
csx engineer
What I like the best is when the yard puts out a departure time that is the same as when the crew comes on duty. So, 3 hours later when the train really leaves the terminal… Lower managment tries to pu***he delays on the dispatchers, but we have something called OS times by each control point signal, so when the upper management comes to us we just point them in the other direction. Nice effort trainmaster, but you’ll have to try harder than that, LOL!
Poor spelling gives me a heachache.
take 3 ibuprophen and go lay down then
csx engineer
They also do that to avoid paying initial terminal delay to the crews that are still entitled to it. It is all a matter of making the numbers that are currently being watched look good. When yard dwell time was being watched we were instructed to set cars off on a siding outside of the yard so they would not show up on the yard account. This improved the yard dwell times but the cars had to be handled two extra times and the siding could not be used for its normal purpose. This kind of manipulation happens all the time when management defines results as a set of numbers.
check the definitions on the AAR performance measures web page.
At the beginning of Oct., the RRs )except CN) have used a std definition and restated dwell and trn spd back to 1/1/05.
There is very little intermodal or unit train dwell in the dwell measure.
Well said, csx engineer[:D] I read these forums to learn about railroading, not to find errors of spelling or grammar!
Train speed and yard dwell time are measures of performance, so are grammar and spelling and their impact on reading time and headaches! Still we love the input!
Will … taking 3 asprin and a nap!!
What is a seven yo?
Kurt.
Boy jextra! Why the boner for CSX Engineer? Would you like to share with us what it is that you do for a living? Please impress me…(I’m just an ignorant rail too. Was my spelling and grammar correct there Sally?)
I suspect He is an editer for Strunk and Waite (The elements of Style.) [:D]
Kurt.
see my comment above about headaches…thank you… have a nice life
csx engineer
CSX engineer hit it squarely on the head. Yards are a bottleneck for rail operations. A full yard is revenue standing still, and since the business of railroads is moving stuff from one point to another, I can understand why railroads want to keep trains moving.
Looking at the big picture, however, it seems to me that railroads also have to keep track (pun intended) of freight cars “in storage”, as these are not doing anything except taking up space on a mostly unused siding. Are stored freight cars used in dwell time stats? Also, it occurs to me that some industries (thinking of auto makers, but chemical plants come to mind as well) use their freight cars as cost efficient, movable storage. It would seem that the railroads would have to count these cars in dwell time stats as well. (Even though the industries involved probably pay a nominal charge to the railroads just to have those cars sitting still, fully loaded, outside the plants.)
Erik
Anybody can see RR perf measures here: http://www.railroadpm.org/
You can even chart one RR against the others.
what is sad is your narrow mindedness that spelling and grammer are a judge of someones carictor and intelligence… litttle know fact… ALBERT ENSTINE was a poor speller as well as an under achever not to mention a scater brain…but yet he is credited as being one of the smartest men of the 20th century…
also…i see your spelling and grammer skills have landed you at the top of the job heep… wow… can spell but cant get out of a crapy factory job… now if you said you where a rocket scenties with NASA or something…then…and only then i might consider giveing you a little slack…but since your not… where do you get off buddy… you dont like my postings… then dont read them… you sir are one of the foamers that give all the rest of you a bad name…and make it that we railroaders are hesitent at even talking to foamers…let lone share information…
csx engineer
Well jextra, sounds like a case of jealousy. You probably can’t figure out why a couple of clowns (myself and others) hire out on th RR and you can’t or didn’t. Wether we can spell or not, we did pass the required tests. These tests are not rocket science, but, pretty intense. Instead of pissing everybody off, maybe if you wanted to hire out, you shoulda asked the resident non-spellers how they did it. CSX would have been one of the first ones to respond with good advice. The RRs are doing quite a bit of hiring now and it would be a good time to try. As far as my usual firing back at someone who comes off like an AS+ such as yourself, I will let it ride. I’m not in an agressive mood. If you are so depressed with your job. Why are you a 20+ year employee?
i couldnt have said it better myself… even tho i tried…lol
csx engineer