Why are they running 167 car trains? Regardless of how many derailed?

167 cars is tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long!!!

FWIW

I agree, it really is.  Shockingly this is normal, some are over 200 cars!

They have more than enough room to work. Time for massive rail inspections and necessary upgrades including crossings. 

'Hey, rail companies, they're your tracks and crossings, get them repaired and properly graded. Semi trucks and trailers bottoming out then crushed by fast moving freight units is unacceptable. 

"We don't have the man power to address all the areas effected."

Get it done, hire necessary help. You built a trans-continental rail system surely you can repair rail crossings. No more alibis. Kick ass and get it completed. Or as Gunny Highway said, "improvise, adapt, overcome."

We expect results in 2023 or we'll ["I'll] fire you." - Patton, George C. Scott. :[-   

I've seen it mentioned quite often the cities/counties are responsible for crossings, the RR is only responsible for the lights/gates at the crossings.

Because long freight trains are more profitable.   

Ish

Then offer a penalty clause for trains that have more than 80 cars. Each car over 80 gets penalized a certain dollar amount. 

Make it such that the most profitable trains are 80 cars or less after penalties have been incurred!

i.e. 10% penalty for the 81st car, 15% penalty for the 82nd car, 20% penalty for the 83rd car, 25% penalty for the 84th car and 30% penalty for the 85th car. So, for trains that have 85 cars, they would stand at a net profit of $0.

10%+15%+20%+25%+30%=100%.

So, if they ran a train with 150 cars, they would stand to lose 12,775% of their profits!

FWIW

How to propose to make your long train penalties happen, Walter?

I was thinking the opposite.   Amtrak should run more cars on each train.   That would enable Amtrak to carry more passengers for a greater profit.   At present an Acela train set has 8 cars and other trains have about the same number.   Amtrack should run 10 to 12 cars on each train.   

And if there were cars running empty Amtrak could decrease the fare until it reaches the point of maximum profit for the train.   That would move more people at a lower fare while increasing revenue.   

Ish 

According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), states are responsible for evaluating grade crossing risks and prioritizing grade crossings for improvement 1. The decision to install a specific type of warning device at a particular public grade crossing is made by the state highway authority, not by a railroad, and approved by the Federal Highway Administration 1.

The FRA also states that maintenance of highway-grade crossings and tracks are the responsibility of individual railroads under federal law and regulations.

Therefore, all crossings in the USA to be surveyed, properly graded to accommodate semi trucks, trailers. 

Thank you, I stand corrected, looks like everything I've heard was incorrect on that.

What the law says is one thing.   What actually happens is something else again.   There are examples of grade crossings which, because of the additions of ballast to maintain them, are considerably higher than the roads that intersect them.   And there are cases where large vehicles such as trucks or buses have gotten stock on the railroad tracks because the track is so high above the road.   And they have been hit by trains because of that.   

Ish