Yeah, just as I suspected.... Lots of hyperbole from people who don't like PSR, not a lot of commentary on why it could benefit Amtrak...
Yes, PSR does reduce costs and increase profits. That's management's job -- make the most money for the company by spending the least amount of money.
Prior to PSR, there were a lot of deeply ingrained poor operating and scheduling practices that drove a lot of inefficiencies, as well as overtime and penalty pay. As that got cleaned up, the old-timers who used to make a lot of money from penalty pay started howling about how bad PSR was.....
It's a fact that with PSR, equipment utilization is up (e.g. hours spent in motion pulling revenue as opposed to idling on a enginehouse lead somewhere) and yes, units in storage are up.
It's a fact that Deadheading and Away from Terminal pay is down. Crews head out of the terminal, and there's no ambiguity of "if" there will be a train for them to run back home, it's a known when. Some of them will be same day within 12 hours of service, others will be after some rack time and back before time-away premiums kick in. Some crews change at a midpoint so they can bring another train into their terminal and still be within their 12 hours. That means they're home every night instead of away, which a normal person would see as a boost to quality of life, yet some still find it necessary to complain about.
It's also a fact that done correctly, crews aren't being called up with 90 minutes notice as often. That's a plus for safety.
It's also a fact that done correctly, PSR doesn't require nearly as many yard tracks or smaller yards with servicing facilities.
I look at FedEx and UPS as comparisons. They run on a fixed schedule, be it planes or the various truck networks. They have set times for everything to cross-connect, and you don't see a lot of extra equipment lying around just-in-case aside perhaps for a couple hot spares to cover for breakdowns. They're both grossly profitable. Customers love the reliability and dependibility. If they say two days, it's two days. Good luck getting that commitment from BNSF.
Why that seems so impossible for a railroad to accomplish is boggling. Go look at old timetables, and you'll see freight running on schedules prior to the 1960's, but 40 and 50 years later, it's impossible? That's inexplicable.
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