I don’t log every train I see/hear, but I live near the NS mainline. I can honestly say that typically Sundays are a slower day on the tracks and Mondays I hear mostly local customers being serviced.
The past few Sundays appeared to be a typical busy day, there really wasn’t much of a slow down. I’m seeing more container trains than anything else, a few mixed trains and its been a while that I’ve seen tanker trains… but that is my personal observations.
I’d imagine if the trucking industry is working overtime, the railroads have to keep pace as well. Thoughts on this? Perhaps my imagination is getting the best of me?
There is no way the truckers are clearing costs at many of the rates cited. They’re running for cash, trying to keep their equipment from being repo’d and their insurance good.
The truck freight market approaches perfect competition. When demand craters, as it has, the supply of trucks doesn’t go down much. That forces prices down. How long they can stand that is unknown.
Note: A “Van” or “Dry Van” is a box trailer with no refrigeration system.
In another thread on this Forum, a couple days ago Randy Vos - an owner-operator trucker - said he was glad he signed up for a contract with one of the paper mills (yes, hauling TP and the the paper for the rolls it gets wound on), because of the low rates other truckers are getting.
Back to rails, today I saw an article from Railway Age about an AAR report that rail volumes are down 20 - 25% compared to the same week a year ago, pretty much for railcars, intermodal, and combined. Most commodity groups were down by wildly varying percentages (autos was -87.7% !) except grain, which had a modest increase of 2.7%. Here’s the link to it - has a heckuva graph at the top of the article:
I’m afraid all the efforts to “flatten the curve” are simply going to extend the event. Unless a vaccine is found (one estimate has that not happening until 2022), or the virus dies out, everyone is eventually going to get infected, whether they get sick or not.
As long as people continue to test positive, the powers that be will enjoy their power trip and keep things locked down.
New York’s governor just extended the lockdown from the end of April to the middle of May. I foresee another extension after that.
Isn’t the the point? So the medical system isn’t completely overloaded?
You have a terminal of 50 people. Would you rather have 3 off at a time for 2-3 weeks each throughout the next several months, or have 48 off all at once?
It is, but many people seem to believe it means that they won’t catch it themselves at all…
On the other hand, wouldn’t you prefer to have your business completely shut down for a couple of weeks, then be back running full force after that, as opposed to limping along with few customers, etc for months more?
Many small businesses here are hurting - dairy farmers are dumping milk, with some afraid they will go under.
Some government “leaders” are so taken with their current ability to rule by fiat that they really don’t want to give up that control. Banning golf - the original social distancing game. Setting curfews, so you can’t take a walk around the block by yourself after 9PM. Closing parks and beaches. It’s like they’re testing us to see how much we’ll take before we push back. A whole bunch of folks in Michigan did push back.
A lot of people have a 4th grade understanding of science.
Depends on the business. But nobody wants to shut down. I mean several people ( I believe Bill Gates) have pretty much said that we should completely shut down for a month and then reopen. Right now, we are half-doing everything.
And there’s only so many hospitals, so many ICUs, so many ventiators, so many medical people. The goal is to not need all of them. But if everyone gets sick at once…
A group of people that gathered in a big mass. Becuase that makes sense.
There is talk in Michigan of mass protests against the shut down, advancing the argument that " people who venture out in public aren’t vectors for infection but rather freedom fighters standing up to oppression."
I’m more inclined to see the people who refuse to be forced back to the yolk just to satisfy Wall Street fat cats as the true freedom fighters
People who venture out into public and then congregate in groups like they did on the Michigan capitol lawn, are vectors for infection, no matter their cause. The virus has no political affiliation.
The proof will be in the pudding, as they say, in a couple of weeks.
I understand the no mass gatherings and social distancing. What I don’t get is why certain activities (like a walk around the block, or on the beach - especially if there’s no one else in sight) need to be banned.
Meanwhile, the parking lot at your local big box is full of cars.
Groups of five are allowable (but discouraged if not in the same family).
It was another state that had the curfew. I can’t remember which. There’s also an image circulating of two police officers arresting a solitary fellow for walking alone on the beach in Florida. They were much closer than six feet to him.
After 8PM tonight, you’ll need to wear a mask if you are in public in a situation where social distancing is not possible (ie, grocery stores, etc.).
I went to Lowes today to get stuff to fix my garage door (it wasn’t quite all the way open when I started backing in).
All of the staff and maybe half of the customers were in masks of various types. If the behaviors I saw there were any indication of how people are going to wear masks, they may as well not bother. The same goes for gloves.
NY’s governor has extended the “pause” for another two weeks.
Remember that symptoms do not appear until days after the person IS a carrier, spreading droplets on many things that everyone else touches. And it’s not just old folks who are dying. STAY apart to stop the spread.
The death rate is under 2%, and will continue to drop as more testing is available, revealing more infected people. Antibody testing is in the works, which will further increase the number of people who have been exposed and are now likely immune, whether they had symptoms or not.
This is equivalent to, or less than the death rate of the common flu, which we took almost no precautions for. In fact, I’d bet we all know someone who went to granny’s house for Thanksgiving even though they had ‘a touch of the flu.’
Everyone likes to post the number of positive tests - but that’s since day one. 98% of those people have recovered, or are recovering. Many people have been put in quarantine, or isolation because of exposure, not because they actually contracted the virus. They’re coming out of isolation as well, most symptom-free.
The big question is how long are we going to hide? How long can we afford to hide?
You’ve touched on one of my pet peeves with the stats that are being thrown around; i.e. the number of cases being reported is cumulative - not current or active.
[soapbox]At the risk of being briefly political - this whole exercise has been political. Previous outbreaks have not brought out this level of “scare.” And the petit tyrants are having a field day, ruling by fiat.
Despite constant denials by those feeding on the hype, this is turning out little worse for most of the country than the annual flu. In fact, some areas probably have more deaths from the flu than from this virus.
The death rate may be 2% but that is still a guess. The death rate in Italy was 12%, partly attributed to their elder population. The death rate for flu is 0.1%. It should be obvious to anyone whose has seen the evening news from New York that COVID is much worse than the flu. No need to consult a politician.