Yes, I’m familiar with reasons that passenger vehicles break down. Shit happens, I get that.

But the fucking miles long freight train itself shouldn’t break down 3 to 5 days a week, that’s what’s going on here.

Does the urine go in before or after the bleach?

Asking for a… GODDAMN IT GARY I TOLD YOU TO WAIT!

Anyways, asking for a friend…

There’s about to be an uproar here, everyone in the area is suffering this stupid shit. Yeah, only one track to share between freight and passenger trains, so even if you wanna ignore passenger vehicles altogether, it’s still a serious fucking problem.

Good question.

Apparently, if you multiply two sides of two major intersections that are two lanes wide, backed up for over a half hour or so, then how many cars are being blocked from travel?

Sorry I didn’t get out and do an exact count, I can’t exactly be in two places at once, but this shit blocked all the intersections to our part of town.

Inside out helps mark your scent in the local laundromat, who doesn’t do that? /s

It’s a problem from both sides apparently, both the railway and the local government. I ain’t asking them to switch to trucks, hell I get it, more power and efficiency for trains! 👍

Just stop parking in the middle of the rail intersections, there was an actual train parking spot with 3 switched rails they could have parked at for maintenance about ~300 feet to the right, no joke.

But they decided to block not 1 but 2 road intersections instead? I dunno, I’m no railway expert, but I don’t think trains are supposed to park on the road…

No, just Interstate 10, seven miles in Reverse…

I’m sure you’re curious why, so short story…

That was right after Hurricane Katrina, we went West to go check on my mom, but hadn’t gotten the news yet that the Eastbound bridge lane of Interstate 10 had collapsed.

Welp, my dad was driving then, and we both looked over and saw the collapsed bridge, so we both basically said FUCK, and put it in reverse and drove slowly backwards to the onramp we entered from. There was no other way back…

I didn’t ask how trains save train fuel, I asked how they save fuel in general, across the board of all transportation, particularly those blocked by a train in my post.

You assume too much, learn to read around the question. If a train parks and blocks a hundred pedestrian cars, and half those cars don’t turn their engines off, then the train is still wasting the fuel of 50 cars…

So what do? Can’t call the railroad company, their number isn’t even in service anymore.

Oh, funny you’d compare it to just rerouting traffic.

The parked train literally and completely blocked off our entire community, for over half an hour. No detour whatsoever, if an actual emergency would have happened during that time, they would have had no other option than to send in a helicopter.

I’d like to assume that such situations are due to a breakdown or something, but 3+ times a week?

I’m glad your area apparently has better train service and maintenance than my area, but yeah apparently they don’t know what they’re doing down here.

Southern Mississippi USA here if it matters much (kinda does I guess)…

How do you even do that? Like literally write to politicians?

I’m literally signed up for Ezell’s Edge, but it’s just an automated publication, they don’t read a fucking thing.

No, I’m looking for an answer, or a means to pursue an answer, or even better, hopefully a solution.

Another commenter suggested I call the train authority/maintenance people. Sounds good on paper, but their number is disconnected.

Cause and effect, train parks, blocks vehicles, and half the drivers refuse to shut off their engine.

Trains literally have their own parking areas, one such parking area literally about ~300 feet to the right of this photo. There was absolutely no reason they had to park where they did, dodging their literal 3 line maintenance track, by ~300 feet. Fuck they coulda put the train in reverse to use their maintenance tracks rather than blocking not one but two major intersections…

I don’t even live in an industrial area yo, I live by the coast where boating, fishing and food are the big things.

Again, my point is when you got (yes estimated) 100 cars stopped for half an hour, and only half of those cars bother shutting off their engines, well I ain’t about to go knocking on windows to ask people to shut off their vehicles to help the better cause. I ain’t trying to get shot, so half the chucklefucks still run their engines the whole time.

So how much fuel is wasted by passenger vehicles in such circumstances? Sorry I don’t have any exact detailed study for you, but it’s probably not much different than existing studies regarding how much fuel gets wasted at every red light intersection vs a roundabout.

Obviously a roundabout ain’t gonna work for trains, but at the same time the trains don’t need to be parking and blocking traffic multiple times a week…

Our trains run to and from New Orleans Louisiana to Mobile Alabama, possibly even further now, major shipping routes to major corporations no less.

So why they gotta decide to park their freight trains right over our main community artery roads for over a half hour at a time, multiple times a week?

Oh, did I mention, they share the same rail with Amtrak passenger trains? At least Amtrak doesn’t park…

I’m not even sure what your point is anymore.

Yes we have trains. Yes we have highways. Yes we have bridges, for both even. There’s still no good reason for freight trains to park and block major intersections for over a half hour 3+ times a week.

Anyways, what’s your point?

Have you read any of my comments? Of course we did!

Half the chucklefucks around us didn’t though…

Its not even hot here yo, especially not today, it feels really good to be honest. Yes, we just rolled our windows down and shut the engine off while we waited, but for whatever 'murica first™ reason or whatever, half the vehicles around us apparently have nothing better to do than piss away fuel money and continue contaminating the planet…

Where you think the train goes, assuming it doesn’t just park like it does 3+ times a week? It’s next destination is literally over a bridge.

Oh, you must have misinterpreted my question. You (and apparently others) must have thought I was asking about the train fuel exclusively. I was most decidedly not.

I was asking about the multitude of passenger vehicles blocked by the train across multiple intersections for over half an hour, and only around half of the blocked vehicles bothered to even shut their engine off.

Therefore, parked train blocking traffic to an entire community for over half an hour is burning more fossil fuels than if the train actually parked in a designated parking area (oh wait, that was only about ~300 feet to the right).

It’s not the train burning the fuel, it’s half the cars waiting for the thing to move. Cause and effect yo, cause is train, effect is around a hundred cars, half of which ain’t got common sense to shut their engine off, steady burning gas.

• Cause = Parked Train
• Effect = Passenger Vehicle Gallons Burned

So the parked train literally causes excess emissions, from the vehicles they block, but the train isn’t at fault?

Why train park and block intersections, multiple times a week?