I’m important, and I have the letter (generic-to whom it may concern type) to prove it.
As of March 17, all employees are to print out and keep with them a letter that exempts them from travel restrictions. As employees involved in transportation we are “performing services that are essential to the health, safety, and security of the nation,…”
The letter states the continued operation of the railroad is necessary for delivery of food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies that are vital to the nation’s ability to respond to the current pandemic emergency. It doesn’t say if any or all of that is “appropriate business” as defined in the PSR plan.
I may be important now, but just wait. I’m sure once the emergency is over and things are back to normal, I’ll go back to being one of the many who are only viewed as deadwood, “train trash” dragging the company down that needs to be eliminated to get the operating ration down to nothing.
Jeff
P.S. Hey Zug, has your company deemed you essential yet?
Use to get similar letters from CSX during Hurricane Season.
The worst thing is that when the wind gets above 40 MPH they close the main bridges around Jacksonville - and there a lot of high bridges over navigable waters that get closed.
i find this highly ominous for two reasons. First, because it implies strictly-enforced travel bans, perhaps in the immediate future, and second, because it implies that much of that enforcement will be ad hoc without knowledge of a given employee’s importance. Shades of being pulled over repeatedly for driving on ‘officially discouraged’ trips during WWII… only with much more ‘socilly sanctioned’ pseudojustification.
Very likely, also, that this will be enforced the way New Jersey tried with drivers’ licenses at traffic stops. Failure to produce the valid document was what the summons was for, the judgment based on, and the copious fines assessed on. Didn’t matter if you had a valid license, never mind if checking the computer verified the validity – “failure to produce” was the offense in the motor-vehicle code.
What’ll be interesting is what happens if a called railroader is detained or turned back due to failure to carry his little propusk in its appropriate wear-proof case. Oh wait, I know already – discipline because you were instructed to carry your letter at all times.
Meanwhile … how many days, or hours, or milliseconds from this decree becoming known will it take for ‘believable’ copies to be produced and perhaps peddled for ‘the rest of us’ … and the result being excuse letters on special banknote paper with embedded magnetic information, smart chips, and dancing holograms… different each week.
Back during WWII if the GIs were suspicious of someone they encountered (i.e., Nazi spy or soldier in disguise), supposedly they’d ask a question about something only a true American would know, such as “Who plays shortstop for the Yankees?”
What would be an appropriate question for modern day railroaders? [:-,]
Ask them if they have a microwave available in the caboose?
Just in, California governor just ordered the entire state to self confine…40 million people.
except for those mentioned in this list of businesses permitted to remain open in Los Angeles, I’d asume that similar exemptions are available throughout the state.
Too bad they make you feel unimportant in normal times. Most probably know crews are important, but “the system” is setup to not show it…i.e., no positive feedback… only negative. Good article in the most recent Trains issue that sums it up…
I guess it is about time to “throw a penalty flag” [#offtopic] and remind us of the ‘new’ DRIVER’s License system of REAL ID’s that is working its way around the ole USA these days…[#dots][banghead]
“…The “what” & “why” of the REAL ID Act…”
The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 with the goal to “set minimum security standards for license issuance and production.” The Act established identical requirements for state-issued licenses and ID cards nationwide. While it is not a “national ID,” per se, it does provide federal authorities with the assurance that the holder of a REAL ID-compliant license or identification card has met the level of security it deems appropriate for access to certain types of federally overseen locations…"
My guess ,is that this is not going too far with many employers, OR the railroads…But it sure adds anorther level of the gobernment bureaucrats getting into/ or onto our citizenry…[sigh]
I have been, and continue to be, a firm and enthusiastic proponent of the RealID program for licenses. And for its use in certain forms of preferential access to Federally-overseen things, particularly flight security (or the likely-impending extension of “TSA” functions to Amdreck.)
It is as ridiculous for RealIDs to become acceptable ‘alternate ID’ to private government facilities as it would be – as was seriously proposed here a few years ago – to make your library card an acceptable form of voter registration. I had my absolute and total fill of any state-issued form of ID ‘counting’ on a Federal level long ago, in part with experience in New Jersey with fraud, and in Tennessee with attempted outright terrorism. Any system that does not involve dynamic realtime verification of personal identity backed up with private identifiers – in other words anything that requires you to tote some piece of paper that keeps you from arrest or worse – is not an answer to the fundamental things a “RealID” should enable.
And no, it shouldn’t display your SSN directly or allow someone to hack a chip or inadequately-dereferenced database to harvest it…
The governor of Illinois just impossed a “Shelter in Place” order for the entire state starting at 5:00 PM tomorrow. So, that letter from the UP could be necessary.
I have no medical training. So I can’t really judge the propriety of this drastic measure. But I know I don’t like it. Taken literally it means “Don’t leave home.”
There are exceptions. We’re allowed to go get groceries for example. If only toilet paper and cooking oil were available. I’d guess going out to watch trains by yourself or going fishing alone are forbidden.
I’m 69 years old and I already was taking measures to limit personal contact. At some point the government is going to have to trust us to take care of ourselves.
I’m guessing, and it’s just a guess, that a “tipping point’s” going to come sooner or later. What I mean by that is people are going to say “Enough already! Yes we know some are in danger, yes we have to slow or stop the spread, yes we have to take precautions, but STOP treating us like children! And can the ‘All coronavirus all the time’ news reporting! You’re not helping matters, you’re inciting panic! Especially in those prone to panic anyway!”
But I could be guessing wrong. I’m not infallable.
Now that many of my normal activities have been curtailed or limited, I drive to my favorite train watch spot, which is about 35 miles from home. It is isolated, so I rarely see anyone there, and I go by myself. I have tried to get the cat interested in train watching, but she is having none of it.
If the Governor of Texas, who appears to have retained some sanity in this situation, locks down Texas, I can tell whoever tries to enforce it that I am going to the grocery store, which is just up the road from my train watching spot.
These lockdowns, which are an overreaction, will ultimately lead to a societal breakdown, if indeed it has not happened already. Widespread hoarding and cheating are occurring now Texas.