Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Says it Won't Attend Town Hall

Norfolk Southern says it won't attend town hall, fearing 'growing physical threat' (msn.com)

Can’t say I blame them. NS as a company should attend but which employee do you throw to the lions?

howeld Wrote:
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> Can’t say I blame them. NS as a company should
> attend but which employee do you throw to the
> lions?


The CEO.

This is turning into a nightmare for the NS. I can see some changes in railroading in the future.

Posted from iPhone

Bringing the Caboose back! Two employees in the caboose and two on the headend to start. Detectors every 10-15 miles and trains no longer than the longest siding on the route. Government should mandate this, with Congress passing the necessary legislation.

Valleyman

The Billion dollar derailment. I'm sure their Actuaries knew it was coming at some point. Sell your stock now.
 

Train length has gotten WAY out of hand.  CSX last week had a 17000 ft train in front of #50 Cardinal in Indiana.  You can guess what happened.  Five hour delay.......

9,000 ft sounds about right to me.  That will match the siding length in many cases.  

And thumbing their nose at the town because of something they caused is sure are going to help smooth things over.

Posted from iPhone

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Train length has gotten WAY out of hand.  CSX
> last week had a 17000 ft train in front of #50
> Cardinal in Indiana.  You can guess what
> happened.  Five hour delay.......
>
> 9,000 ft sounds about right to me.  That will
> match the siding length in many cases.  


Train was 9300 feet.

Posted from Android

1.75 miles long....

Victor Baird

OHRY Wrote:
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>
> Train was 9300 feet.
 

So which body made the final call and approval to blow the cars?  Or do they just let the RR do whatever they want?   Otherwise, why have any environmental or regulatory agencies.  I would imagine the EPA would need to approve based on any release models, and the NWS would need to be contacted for plume dispersal models to mitigate any downrange fallout.   Was that done?   

This will fall into "save a dollar now, but spend thousands of dollars later".  In the long run it's simply not worth it.
I agree, at least 2 person crews.  How can there be talking of having "remote" conductors.  The enginner has a job, the conductor has a job, plain and simple.
It's not like the engineer can wear two hats, doing their job and that also of the conductors.  
And I agree, train length should match available siding lengths.  Especially when Amtak following is involved.
I dont know about brake systems and there might be no way of avoiding it.  But having an issue and the train dropping into emergency for the whole of the train.
Would be like going 70 down the highway, having a left front tire starting to loose air and instead of slowly getting over to safely stopping on the shoulder you 
instead decide to yank on the emergency brake and stomp on the brakes at the same time.
Again having a train drop into emergency might be totally unavoidable.  But keeping everything on the tracks and upright should be of most importance.

Just my two cents on this very complex subject.

Rusty
 

The neighbors who were interviewed on NBC and in the NY Times felt very strongly that Governor DeWine and Norfolk Southern has zero regard for their interests. Just pawns to be lied to, and used for political or economic gain.  "Get the railroad open" but not "Is it safe for our kids and us to even be here?"

Railroads have said for years that they don't want to haul this stuff. I bet they charge a premium to haul it.

Victor Baird

Companies have PIO's for this.  They forbid common employees from talking to media, then pull a disappearing act like this?  Pretty phony.

NS= Here, take this check and sign here, everything is going to be OK. 
Yep, Whoever made the call to light it all back up again and burn it all, better find some legal council. But hey, gotta get this mainline back open again so we can make more money!

 

They are probably not attending because their public information officer has not been given all of the prepared statements yet. Or they were afraid somebody with knowledge will start asking inconvenient questions that they won’t be able to bullshit their way out of.

Posted from iPhone

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

ALCO630 Wrote:
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> They are probably not attending because their
> public information officer has not been given all
> of the prepared statements yet. Or they were
> afraid somebody with knowledge will start asking
> inconvenient questions that they won’t be able
> to bullshit their way out of.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Apparently, the area around the derailment is crawling with various scientists / toxicologists, etc. In some cases, their test results differ from the "official" results.   This thing has the potential to be very messy.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Apparently, the area around the derailment is
> crawling with various scientists / toxicologists,
> etc. In some cases, their test results differ from
> the "official" results.   This thing has the
> potential to be very messy.

I predict that years down the pike, when all the awards and settlements are done, NS will have to reorganize.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Apparently, the area around the derailment is
> > crawling with various scientists /
> toxicologists,
> > etc. In some cases, their test results differ
> from
> > the "official" results.   This thing has the
> > potential to be very messy.
>
> I predict that years down the pike, when all the
> awards and settlements are done, NS will have to
> reorganize.

Very, very doubtful…. This derailment is no worse than the Grantedville (mispelled) in South Carolina.

PSR and train length had absolutely nothing to do with the cause of this derailment. That narrative is completely false…. Oh and ECP braking wouldn’t have prevented the derailment either… could it have mitigated the damage, possibly but the evidence is inconclusive at this point at time.

Posted from iPhone

There are a lot of unknowns in this situation. Haz-mat's impact on the fire fighters, neighbors, down wind communities, etc. More than 20 years after the World Trade Center attack, people who worked on the rubble pile are being diagnosed with exceptionally rare cancers related to toxic intakes.  It would not suprise me if the NS case is still open and in discovery five years from now.

NS hasn't, and likely won't, release info on their financial resources. Insurance coverages, deductibles, caps on coverages, etc would be very useful to plaintiff's attorneys.   You may see that in a future 8-K or 10-Q filing with the SEC.

It is certainly possible that NS could suffer enormous financial damage. It has already suffered significant corporate image damage.