Are crew shortages this Bad?

I just heard D3 tell FI-3 at Ayer about 18:30 hrs they would be relieved by "MA -15 out of Mechanicville". I wish I could have recorded the incredulous response from train crew. Several minutes later dispatch informed crew "taxi was delayed and would be an hour late"

MA-15 (Mechanicville-Ayer) is likely a return of an Ayer-based crew out of the hotel in New York. Maybe there was nothing on the west end for them to re-crew if one of the intermodal trains was delayed, or they were the best available and qualified crew for whatever FI-3 was up to.

I can recall a similar situation where we cabbed an Ayer crew from the hotel in New York to Worcester to take a SEPO up from Burncoat Street. The cab made great time and they took the train up the branch and over to Lowell, cabbed back to Ayer all in 12.

I will do one better. I was on an eastbound heading towards Deerfield out of New York and they cabbed down a Portland crew to recrew us at Buckland.

Hard to make some of the stuff up at that place.

I’ve heard that with the takeover by CSX, and especially the short line potential of the west end, that many have jumped ship. Some guys have gone to Amtrak or the T, among others.

Yes, the crew base on the PAS side has been decimated. The only reason NS is not crewing their jobs is because they don't have enough crews in NY either.

Part of the problem is the pay of other industries in the area has caught up with the railroad industry. A lot of crews have left the railroad industry altogether, took a much smaller pay cut than they would have a few years ago, and in the process got a better work schedule and home life.

Especially with places like 3M in NH, where its up to $32/hr to watch a machine roll paper and have a 4 on 3 off schedule.

In a couple of years all those who jumped ship early or left the industry will regret it. Those "manufacturing" jobs at 3M and "supply chain jobs" at Amazon will become automated and go away.

Every time one quits early it's more money for Railroad Retirement for the rest of us.

I doubt they will. The amount that looks to stay someplace to retirement is few and far between these days. It's just another part of the career for them.

According to a post on Facebook this morning, the latest grain train is running over the B&A instead of via Rotterdam/PAR.

A friend that lives out on the West End also remarked that last week 16R sat in North Adams for two days. AD-1
is running only once a week. Last Wednesday it went west to Eagle Bridge, came back and worked the branch.
Still sitting in North Adams...six days now...

Saw the grain train on the Springfield camera around say 0930.

I also saw the grain train go by the Palmer cam late this morning on the B&A. The crew issues on PAS and NS out of Mickyville must be really bad. CSX seems to be taking over Pan Am by default even w/out the merger approval yet. This merger can't happen soon enough.

The ethanol train for the P&W has been running over the B&A more frequently too.

New issue of railpace received today claims all future grain trains will take the B&A to Springfield and interchange there with pan am.
The Springfield part makes no sense to me. Pretty sure they would have to swap ends to run north to Deerfield. B&A to Worcester makes operational sense exfept I think the grain trains are pas and not par and Worcester is par interchange