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They do this shit at least 3 times a week here in south Mississippi, and its a fucking freight train with over a hundred train cars usually.
stop idling your engine
Yeah rev it up really loud, drill some holes in the exhaust too.
That'll be sure to scare off the trains.
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(7 replies)
How do trains save fuel
By reducing the number of freight trucks on the road
And blocking our fire trucks for over half an hour, ain't that cute?
Usually we got a detour we can use, but the train chucklefucks blocked both major intersections at once today, blocking not only civilians but also emergency services.
That's a separate issue. You asked a question, and an answer was given.
I bet that your city is used to having trains, seeing as they're pretty major infrastructure, and had the good sense to have multiple police and fire stations on each side, thus not negatively impacting their response times.
Have you called the station managers or whatever to file an official complaint? If not, you're wasting your time complaining here.
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?
I get you're pissed that you have to wait for a train sometimes. I get it, it happens to me sometimes too. But do you really think the railroad crossing in your specific Mississippi town is the barometer upon which all transportation efficiency is measured?
Maybe your town and local trains just suck?
Oh I more than understood your question, as much as there was one. I'm taking the piss out of you because your question is more of a rant than anything else.
Move somewhere else if you don't like it. You live in an industrial area. As do I, where the trains stop traffic multiple times per day since we have lumber yards here. And we all deal with it because we chose to live here.
The fuel costs of having the train do what it does, even though it's an inconvenience for you, will certainly be substantially less than them catering to you. That's by my estimation though. If you have data showing otherwise, let's take a look at it.
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..
Fuck that, Amtrak ought to call to formally complain on everyone's behalf and safety. It's a shared track, both freight and passenger trains use the track. At least Amtrak trains don't park on the track..
It seems someone in your region needs to learn about bridge technology.
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.
Good. Now, have your people tried doing that, but with a road?
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?
Pretty sure their point is that, in aggregate, trains are a much more fuel efficient and cost effective than transporting the same goods a comparable distance in trucks. The amount that some people burn idling is insignificant in comparison to these savings over longer distances and higher volumes of goods transported. Given this, the transportation companies are unlikely to switch away from rail transport any time soon.
Honestly, your problem is just shitty planning by your local community if you can get trapped without means of escape while freight moves through, and they are suggesting you guys might want to invest in building a way around this with some of that fancy bridge, overpass or tunnel technology we have these days. Why would anyone else involved inconvenience themselves and others that rely on the rail to do business, just because your locality refuses to address an issue that just impacts you and the folks that live around you?
This is like arguing against having an electric grid anywhere, just because you frequently lose power in hurricanes when trees knock down the power lines, while ignoring the fact your town could literally just bury them, as they do to address this problem in many other places.
Man, you have some really fucked-up traffic regulators. That kind of thing isn't common even in poor countries.
I just tried the advice of another commenter, to call our local train station/authority. Guess what I got?
Robochick message: "We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or no longer in service"
☹️
with over a hundred vehicles steady burning gas all around
How are hundreds of car drivers as stupid as the dust on the road and don't turn off their engines?
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.
AC/heat doesnt work when the vehicle is turned off. Some vehicles require getting out and smacking the starter with a hammer to get it to turn over. Just to give a couple of reasons why you wouldnt want to turn off your vehicle when stuck by a train.
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.
I'm not sure why people are down voting you so much.
This shit doesn't happen anywhere else. If a train parked and blocked a crossing 3 times a day for half an hour at a time there would be an uproar.
Well I'm assuming there'd be an uproar, impossible to tell because all our tracks are double tracks to allow passing and trains don't stop for no reason blocking crossings.
We also use bridges a lot.
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 luck with this fight. Texas sued for the right of the state to enforce time limits on trains blocking intersections; and the supreme court told them to fuck off.
Edit: Removed the link to bitch ass Gregg Abbot's opinion piece, and now I can't find the one I intended.
Why not build bridges?
In my state, train companies are fined if they block a crossing more than 10 minutes during the day or 15 minutes at night. But every so often we have to remind local politicians that those regs need to be upheld.
To answer your question directly, Diesel locomotives are actually Diesel generators that drive electric motors. When they're stopped they cycle down the generators to a minimal count to maintain power. They're more efficient in general because the engines are generally running at their peak efficiency RPMs (to drive gennies instead of the wheels). Unlike trucks that are rarely running at peak efficiency RPMs and will burn extra dirty at idle.
The question about train fuel consumption was not the question.
The question regards how much passenger vehicle fuel gets wasted when a train parks and blocks their path. Cause and effect yo, a train parks, blocking multiple intersections, and half them vehicles ain't even gonna shut their engine off.
So, a train parks, over 100 vehicles park at direct and nearby intersections, many many gallons of fuel are being unnecessarily burned.
Yes, we shut our engine off while we waited, but half the chucklefucks out there won't even do that..
Like yeah it's bad. The people who run the train company don't give a fuck about you or the workers who are being held responsible for way more train than is safe for longer than is safe for them to be working. Oh and they always have to be on call 24/7.
It's not the train's fault, it's capitalism. Take the trains back, let the workers run them safely and efficiently, and this won't happen.
I don't see the train as the problem in this scenario. Its not wasting gas the cars are. That being said there should be no train crossings they should all have bridges or such.
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..
oh. ours don't park like that. I mean it takes a while for them to pass through but they don't just stop. I mean I imagine in the past some breakdown issue might have caused it. I think I did not get your actual thing because its foreign to my experience.
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)..
The premise of the question is wrong. Trains need fuel like every other means of transportation. They can help consumers and logistics operations save on their individual fuel cost if they make use of rail rather than roads. A great passenger network saves fuel over all because people share a large passenger carrier rather than individually driving mostly empty cars, especially SUV tanks with only a driver behind the wheel.
Trains also don't "park" on open lines. There is a reason why it stopped and it's most likely safety. So it doesn't hit another train or runs into rail damage, construction crews, people, a shrub fire, etc. Since you say this happens regularly, It's likely the train infrastructure is old. Maybe it's a combination of those problems with too tight running schedules creating a bottleneck. Bring this to your local political leaders, complain to the train companies.
I don't know how hot it is there. What are the rules on not idling your engine while waiting in traffic jams and at railroad crossings? And if drivers are supposed to turn their engines off, this may be a clusterfuck caused by a train but blame must be disturbed. Even if it was hot (and unless I had infants or infirm folks in the car), I would switch off my engine these days because of your president's adventures in Iran.
Trains don't park on open lines? Excuse me, that's exactly what I'm posting, they most certainly do, multiple times a week here!
This time they blocked both intersections in our area, blocking even the typical detour people are accustomed to using when this shit happens.
And it's also a shared rail, shared between long freightlines and also much shorter Amtrak passenger lines. At least Amtrak doesn't park and block a hundred vehicles across multiple intersections..
You call this parking. It's a bottleneck. There are solutions. Underpasses. Overpasses. Better rail infrastructure. Unfortunately, higher taxes.
Write up your frustration and take it to your local, state, and federal politicians.
You're clearly looking for validation, not explanation. Off you go.
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.
But you very clearly only asked how trains save fuel. By not editing the post to actually request an answer it still looks a lot like seeking validation
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.
The problem is that you assume this is a normal train behavior. It is not.
If your question is truly about the general efficency. here is the very first article that i found https://www.thegreenshot.io/uncategorized/train-vs-car/
But all your answers make it clear that you don't care about your question, instead you want to complain. And rightly so! This is shitty
Just stop fraiming it as if you are asking a question. It is not happening with well designed infratructure and is not a general problem with trains.
Maybe in your specific place it might even has a net negative impact. But almost everywhere else trains are saving tons of fuel.
So what do?
I didn't assume much, but I am telling you that you think you said this and you haven't
I imagine a big part of it is lack of infrastructure spendinf.
- Is there a place to stop for whatever reason they’re stopping?
- Are there always at least two tracks to prevent bottlenecks?
- are sidings big enough to fit any train allowed?
- are there sufficient non-grade crossings?
Or are we just letting freight lines continue to milk century old infrastructure without regard to anyone else?
ALL YOU GOT TO DO WAS FOLLOW THE DAMN TRAIN CJ
Has anyone ever taught you to turn the engine off while waiting at a railway crossing?
Have you read any of my comments? Of course we did!
Half the chucklefucks around us didn't though...
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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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