On 10-16-97 BOB WALLACE wrote to DARYL STOUT... 
 
I've also heard in recent days that 
 BW> U.P. 
 BW> has a backlog of cars in some number of freight yards awaiting transit 
 BW> to their destination, some of these already on "hold" for a month or 
 BW> more. Which may explain the recent closed-door meeting in Houston not 
 BW> too long ago that had operating department and shippers discussing how 
 BW> the railroad will clear up the backlog and keep it from happening 
 BW> again. 
Yeah. This was an offshoot of the fact that UP didn't learn their lesson from 
the C&NW takeover. According to reports, they closed two SP yards in Houston 
and tried to move everything to the UP yard, which plugged it solid. Also a  
lack of crews, and then they'd put a crew on a freight, only to have it sit  
for 12 hours waiting to get in or out of the yard. Smart. Very smart.  
 
  
  
  
  BW>   
 BW>   
 BW> DS>  There was a big article in USA Today on Oct. 14...a strike is 
 BW> looming 
 BW> DS>that could shut down the entire Amtrak system, and several commuter 
 BW> DS>railroads on Oct. 22. 
 BW>   
 BW> As I've heard around the San Francisco Bay area in the past ten days 
 BW> or 
 BW> two weeks. One of those commute railroads likely to be affected by a 
 BW> strike would be the CalTrain Peninsula service between San Francisco 
 BW> and 
 BW> San Jose/Gilroy. If it comes, "self-loading" freight will be on its 
 BW> own. 
Does Amtrak also do maintainence for CalTrain? I guess the affected union is 
the maintainence of way people. They've been on a 60 day "cooling off" period 
which is up on Wednesday. Don't look for any strike to last longer than maybe 
an hour or so till an injunction is in place to go back to work again.  
                              K 
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