What would be the business reason? Three class one railroads serve Dallas already. I know there was a foopah about this a while back in another thread but CPKC reaches all the way into BNSF Alliance Yard and has 2-3 small yards around Dallas. Also interchanges with small shortline type switching roads which serve other parts of DFW.
BNSF de Mexico (line in red on Map) has business relationship with Ferromex (line in green on map). With apparently a newly rehabbed border crossing. So possibly this is rail route #4 even though it is dependent on BNSF at the moment. I think you might see Ferromex locomotives in Alliance Yard at times though. It is potentially railroad Armageddon if Mexican rail crews operate North of the physical borderā¦apparently from what I read in these Forums but I suspect that day is not far off.
Itās āpotentially railroad Armageddonā here in the US if American train crews are allowed to operate on territories they are not properly qualified on. The Amtrak Cascades wreck is a prime example of the disasters that can occur when corners are cut in getting crews qualified to operate over a new territory. And this disaster was with a locomotive engineer who had taken a number of student trips over the line and didnāt have to overcome any language barrier issues (2017 Washington train derailment - Wikipedia).
Itās interesting that you are pushing for Mexican crews operating into the US, not vice versa.
Where did he say, or even hint that he was āpushingā for Mexican crews to operate here? Seems to me he was implying the direct opposite.
Interesting to speculate on the politics that would be involved either to qualify American crews to run in Mexico, or Mexican crews here. To say nothing of the āfunā that would ensue with the first accidentā¦
āIt is potentially railroad Armageddon if Mexican rail crews operate North of the physical borderā¦apparently from what I read in these Forums but I suspect that day is not far off.ā
There was a past thread where he was incredulous that US and Mexican train crews had to swap out on the International bridge. There was a news story talking about UP pushing for Mexican train crews to operate into the US. I think it was at Eagle Pass.
Why should anyone care one way or another? The crew member nation of residency should not matter in either direction. The education on operating rules or territories can be done on either side of the border with both nations.
Itās part of operating an efficient transportation system over an international border.
Just need to require the individual in pool service maybe that crosses the border speak both languages fluently. Though I might add that international law says all pilots must be able to communicate in English and English is the official international language for airline pilots. Spanish is probably the easiest language to learn on the planet.
It is, or at least was, a requirement to use English in railroad operations. Except for engines used in international service, usually owned by the foreign railroads, there engines arenāt bilingual. Mexican engines are English and Spanish and some can change from metric to imperial for fuel readings. Canadian, specifically CN-I donāt recall as much for CP, are in English and French.
UP wants them to be able to take trains to/from the nearest yard for more efficient operations. Once the foots in the door, that efficiency will get further and further from the border.
With a pilot, the Mexican crew would not need to be qualified on the territory, and would not need to speak English. But the pilot, qualified on the territory, would need to speak colloquial Spanish and be able to read the Spanish notations and instruments in the cab.
Which railroad bought Spanish-language engines and chose to make B-units out of them instead of changing all the signage?
I agree, of course. But I see difficulties both ways in qualifying one nationās crew to run in the other, perhaps exacerbated by current āborder concernsā. I hope Iām wrong.
I think there would be resistance to having US crews running to the nearest yard in Mexico. The resistance would most likely not be from the Mexicans, but from a midwestern city on the banks of the Missouri.
All the Mexican engines that can enter the US are bilingual. I would guess all engines built for Mexican railroads since US railroads took positions in them have been built that way. Those would be the ones used in cross border operations.
Yeah, thatās how itās supposed to be, but not always what happens in reality. Remember the near miss a few weeks ago in Mexico City between a Delta jet and an Aeromexico RJ? A big part of the problem was that the ATC was talking to the Aeromexico jet in Spanish and the Delta crew couldnāt understand it.
Hereās a simulation with the real ATC transmissions. (59) NEAR DISASTER | Aeromexico Nearly Lands on Top of Delta! - YouTube