Passenger Trains > Railroad Dispatcher - work from home?

Given that so much of the dispatcher's duty now revolves around large, full wall, etc computer screens, zoom screens, could the job be done from home?  Install a few 80 inch monitors, multiple phone lines and terminals, upgrade service to top of the line broadband.  Ready to go?

Currency traders / options specialists and other crafts which require multiple points of contact and cascades of information now do their work from home.  Why not a dispatcher?
 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Currency traders / options specialists and other
> crafts which require multiple points of contact
> and cascades of information now do their work from
> home.  Why not a dispatcher?

Artificial Intelligence is also involved in market trading, because "wrong" electrons don't kill people directly. Money is virtual. Trains are real.

Don't know why people aren't more suspicious of IT. For example, photos posted here are not "exact" but "approximation" to save storage space, but "good enough" for the eyes. I'd think that jobs like dispatching that deals with real tonnage and real destruction should be free from cavalier attitude about "reality" behind the computer screen?

Is the railroad willing to spend resources to ensure reliability of data to all the dispatcher's homes?  

With Movement Planner and other auto pilot dispatching programs the RR's are trying to get rid of Dispatchers as fast as possible. They are not gonna spend the money to move the dispatchers to there home.

Railroad employees covered by Hours of Service Laws (including Dspchrs) are subject to random Drug and Alcohol testing, how would this be performed 24/7in the confines of a private residence randomely? 

Employees are also required to attend training and testing that is objective in nature (CFR wording) and is almost always administered by the the carrier. An employeee would need to be supervised in person to ensure testing honesty & integrity.  



 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Given that so much of the dispatcher's duty now
> revolves around large, full wall, etc computer
> screens, zoom screens, could the job be done from
> home?  Install a few 80 inch monitors, multiple
> phone lines and terminals, upgrade service to top
> of the line broadband.  Ready to go?
>
> Currency traders / options specialists and other
> crafts which require multiple points of contact
> and cascades of information now do their work from
> home.  Why not a dispatcher?
>  

Only if you can guarantee that the connection to the mainframe Dispatching System won't go down. And you can't do that.
It's hard enough to do that when everything is inside the same building.
But between trees falling, tree trimmers cutting more then tree branches and people digging with no idea at all what's under their feet.
There's just no way to assure that the connection.will always be there.
 

As has already been mentioned by others, reliability of connections to ones' home is the most critical factor.  Between the dispatching center where one works and someones' home could easily be 30 miles or more of cable company connections, servers, and whatever else there may be.  That's 30+ miles of locations where a tree falling in a storm or even an errant driver might cause the cable connection to fail.  It simply isn't worth the risk.

Then add to that is the railroad willing to fund maybe $5,000 worth of equipment in someones' home that may be suseptible to anything from fire, flood, toddlers, pets, interupting children or spouse, friends and neighbors stopping by, personal phone calls and myriad of other possible distractions.  The key is 'distractions'.  I have little doubt that every on duty dispatcher does their absolute best to remain 100% focused on the railroad in front of him and the onboard employees under their control.  That means their cell phones turned off and noises from outside their cubicle kept to a minimum.

Also, working at the dispatching center allows instant two way access to supervisors for questions as well as directions/instructions.

This will not happen for the same reasons that air traffic controllers will not be working from home either.
Its also nice to be able to talk tothe person next to you, to talk about whats going on, or hand-offs, and talk to the person you are relieving , or is relieving you.

Most of all, you're dealing with actual real lives. Dispatching is not a video game, dispite what some ppl would like to think.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Given that so much of the dispatcher's duty now
> revolves around large, full wall, etc computer
> screens, zoom screens, could the job be done from
> home?  Install a few 80 inch monitors, multiple
> phone lines and terminals, upgrade service to top
> of the line broadband.  Ready to go?
>
> Currency traders / options specialists and other
> crafts which require multiple points of contact
> and cascades of information now do their work from
> home.  Why not a dispatcher?
>  

Another thing they need are recorded telephone lines.  Financial service people have had this at home for years, but often times those recordings protect them as opposed to their employer so having dispatchers in a position where they would be able to get on a personal cell phone and try to work out mistakes on the side would be a major liability issue. This also brings up personal electronic device policies, which would also be very hard to enforce at home. 

Now hold on... A manager could bring up a screen in his spare bedroom to see what is going on so he can second-guess the DS from home.  That would work just fine and probably has been happening for years.

I was involved with an 'inquiry' on a class 1 that led to a deposition of a dispatcher that made a judgement call of releasing high-priority stack trains into a high wind warning - with the inevitable conclusion.    No fatalaties but a lot of damage - and it came down to a review of the 'command and control' of the proximity and availability of next-level supervision to review the decision.  Written policy said the supervisor had to clear the move, policy said the trains could be moved under approval; how that authority was transmitted and delegated became a real issue.

So after that exercise, not only don't I think it will happen, but it shouldn't happen - you're putting too much on the shoulders of them already let alone by themselves sitting at home, with the distractions that involves.    I felt a lot of sympathy for that dispatcher, and the only good part was that from what I've seen, they changed their policy to 'all stop' now in those situations without putting a decision on their shoulders.

So, given the underwhelming support for "work from home" , should dispatchers all work in single bunker locations like the Harriman Center or Jacksonville?  There's some evidence that concentrating all your people in one place, with no effective backup, is not a good idea.  Evacuatng the Jacksonville dispatch center, and shutting down CSX was what got this thread started.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> So, given the underwhelming support for "work from
> home" , should dispatchers all work in single
> bunker locations like the Harriman Center or
> Jacksonville?  There's some evidence that
> concentrating all your people in one place, with
> no effective backup, is not a good idea. 
> Evacuatng the Jacksonville dispatch center, and
> shutting down CSX was what got this thread
> started.

I've been out of the game for a while now, but as of a few years ago, every Class 1 railroad I knew of had their 'primary' dispatching locations with one or two backup locations. WIth modern dispatching programs, it was pretty easy to switch control between locations. 

randgust Wrote:
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>  Written policy said the supervisor
> had to clear the move, policy said the trains
> could be moved under approval; how that authority
> was transmitted and delegated became a real
> issue.

I always told them to put the instruction to do something wrong in writing. Of course, they would refuse. however, I always had my foot on the (push to talk) pedal for the dispatcher phone during the conversation, including the part where I refused to do it. Lacking that nowadays, I would be broadcasting it on the radio.

TAW



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/21 18:30 by TAW.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, given the underwhelming support for "work from
> home" , should dispatchers all work in single
> bunker locations like the Harriman Center or
> Jacksonville?  There's some evidence that
> concentrating all your people in one place, with
> no effective backup, is not a good idea. 
> Evacuatng the Jacksonville dispatch center, and
> shutting down CSX was what got this thread
> started.

Solution exists, like more local dispatching centers. SoCal still has the joint BNSF/UP facility in San Bernardino area to handle SoCal traffic. If the railroads are unwilling to go back to old school methods to decentralize, then that's their fault if a super-centralized facility has to shut down the entire railroad due to a rare natural disaster. Someone posted a story here on TO of UP shutting down the railroad when there was a tornado that got close to Omaha? Seems that didn't lead to collisions and derailments, so why not live with it?

"Work at home" trendy hype isn't the solution.

I've dealt with arrogant and clueless "paper napkin geniuses" here in Silicon Valley for many years, where they are determined to make the world "perfect" without understanding how the real world works. But reality (including mother nature) still dictate the rules around here.

I would be totally surprised if there was not a complete backup location for each desk, at a remote location, ready to go on short notice.  That is precisely what Amtrak has for its CETC centers; Cobble Hill for South station, 30th St. for Wilmington. These centers are fully equipped, ready for service on short notice. In addition, the way the three centers are set up, any one can substitute for one of the others.

We already have to deal with crew callers working from home, with kids crying and dogs barking in the background. Dispatchers at home would make for some highly entertaining radio transmissions. But yeah...no. Please.

PRR1361 Wrote:
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> I would be totally surprised if there was not a
> complete backup location for each desk, at a
> remote location, ready to go on short notice. 
> That is precisely what Amtrak has for its CETC
> centers; Cobble Hill for South station, 30th St.
> for Wilmington. These centers are fully equipped,
> ready for service on short notice. In addition,
> the way the three centers are set up, any one can
> substitute for one of the others.

A Class 1 with which I am familiar has, for years, had a  second complete dispatch center maintained at an undisclosed location in case the main dispatch center is incapacitated for any reason.  It is located close enough to the main dispatch center that dispatchers could be moved there quickly in an emergency, but far enough away that, short of a nuclear war, it would not be affected by a disaster hitting the main center.  I haven't been in direct contact with high-level people at that railroad for several years, but I have no reason to believe that the second "redundant" dispatch center is not still there. 

pdt Wrote:
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> This will not happen for the same reasons that air
> traffic controllers will not be working from home
> either.
> Its also nice to be able to talk tothe person next
> to you, to talk about whats going on, or
> hand-offs, and talk to the person you are
> relieving , or is relieving you.

Person to person communication is overrated.  We were able to communicate just fine with regional centers, and for the last year we have been able to communicate just fine with a Covid split center.

>
> Most of all, you're dealing with actual real
> lives. Dispatching is not a video game, dispite
> what some ppl would like to think.

I doubt anyone thinks that, at least anyone that matters.   As someone who does it everyday, as long as adults are involved, dispatching from home would work fine.  However, we can be our own worst enemy.  Someone would open a day care in their house, and try to run it while running the railroad.

Typhoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Person to person communication is overrated.  We
> were able to communicate just fine with regional
> centers, and for the last year we have been able
> to communicate just fine with a Covid split
> center.

That's among the reasons I have always thought control centers are overrated. The excuse for them is that the dispatchers can work more closely when they are in the same room. In B&OCT Chicago, we didn't have a problem dealing with Akron, Grand Rapids, Terre Haute, CNW Station, LaSalle Street Station, Cicero, Gibson, and usually Clearing by phone. There was a big problem working with 16th & Lumber by phone, but that had nothing to do with the by phone part.


> I doubt anyone thinks that, at least anyone that
> matters.   As someone who does it everyday, as
> long as adults are involved, dispatching from home
> would work fine.  However, we can be our own
> worst enemy.  Someone would open a day care in
> their house, and try to run it while running the
> railroad.

I was thinking of that as more of a simultaneous activity by another household member, but, yeah. First thought, though, was the cat on the keyboard, staring into the camera.

Were it I, there would be an expectation of the company building a room and equipping it, or compensating me to do so. Maybe it would be time to go back to company housing for employees so that the housing would be equipped and go with the job.

TAW

TAW

It would seem that working from home would make sensitive information and processes more susceptible to hacking into the system...

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com