Our co-founder, John Schmitter, has worked in the rail industry for over 40 years. As such, he has a deep understanding of how the industry works, and is well-aware of its strengths and weaknesses. His presentation, “Railroad 101: Introduction to Railroad Operations” paints a picture of general rail operations. We’re breaking it down into digestible bits.
When understanding Rail 101, it’s important to realize the sources of delayed cars and other problems. Origin and destination terminals (first and last mile) involve many “work events,” and are the major sources driving problems with rail shipments.
What happens at these terminals? Local crews pick up and deliver cars to industries and interchanges on branch lines, or on segments of more congested lines. They pull the car from your plant and other plants, and return to the serving yard with those cars for processing. But there are many things that can go wrong. Some examples of events that can go wrong at origin terminals include: the local crew not making it to the plant because of too much volume to deliver or pick up; not enough time before their hours of service expire; derailment; network congestion; bad order cars; changes in priority; or insufficient crew availability to fill all the jobs. See the below graphic: