>>1754294Might not. Could work to get them from freight yard to local freight. That could end PSR’s practices, which has been all about pushing away small customers who can’t afford the fees/fines for not having cars read on time for when the locomotive sweep through to do pickup.
This reduced manpower hours needed to service branch lines also allows low-volume branch lines/branch line customers to remain profitable, and not abandoned, which has been happening a lot lately.
This is important, because branch lines connecting between main lines mean service/washouts don’t hobble the entire line. So keeping them around for that kind of rare use, without taking a financial hit for not abandoning them, is quite important to the overall health of the railroad’s operative capacity & resiliency.
There’s a lot to be said for the idea, I think. People imagine it will replace all railroading. I don’t think that’s the goal.
