Want to make big bucks? Become a train engineer in Australia. But you better hurry!

I saw that article too!  Darn....Machines....taking...over...world...arghh....

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen...

“The position we’ve taken is that you’re never going to win the argument against technology,”

The prototypes are finally catching up to how the models have been operated for the past 100+ years.

No, like here in the States Union labour outpriced itself.  Will they EVER learn?

So I guess the crews are supposed to work 12-hour shifts on 14 consecutive days for minimum wage?

Seriously, the "union" argument is getting old.

the quoted salary ($224,000 avg) would actually put them at 5 times the minimum wage in Australia which, by the way, has the highest, by far, minimum wage in the world at $16/hr.

 

five time minimum wage for sitting on your butt, pulling a throttle and applying brakes?  i doubt if design engineers, college vs HS graduates, get paid 10 or 15 times minimum wage.  it may be getting to be an old argument, but in this case it appears to be a valid argument.

I'll agree that it's a ridiculously high salary, but at the same time running a 15,000+ ton ore train isn't as easy as you make it sound either. It ain't just "pulling the throttle and applying the brakes".

The sad part of this kind of situation is the net effect it's going to have. When all the unions have been broken (and they will be), we will live in a world where anyone without a college degree (and maybe quite a few WITH one) will be working for peanuts.

Before getting to exited about high wages in Australia check out the cost of living, cost of housing etc.

 

Charlie

That gonna be the makings for Mad Max V?!{heard #4 was already on its way}

That's true, in Sydney the median house price is approaching $700,000. How young people can afford this is beyond me. These train drivers earning these big wages are in the iron ore mines in the north west, in stinking hot desert. The wages of all mine workers are huge, and so they should be. The money these mines make is massive and the number of people employed relatively small. The cost of automating these trains make the wages look reasonable. It's done purely for philosophical reasons. In other words, the wealthy mine owners begrudge the lowly workers making big money.

 

Can't believe Rich hasn't chimed in here.

Black Mesa and Lake Powell RR tried that 35 years ago and decided to add an operator anyway.

 

Systems have improved manifold but all it will take is one major oops and the regulators will force more expensive folks back into the cab than they have now.

I'd forgotten about BM&LP.  I think the only time they use "remote" operation is at the loading/unloading points now, maybe not even there. 

 

I'll be the first to admit I know pretty-much nothing about the nuts and bolts of automating a railroad... but I'm curious about what would happen if one of these VERY heavy ore trains became a runaway due to a glitch, system malfunction, etc.  I'm sure it's designed to fail "safe", but we all know computers aren't infallible.  With no one on the train, their only option would be to derail it somewhere if they could. 

 

*Just to be clear, I'm referring to a situation caused by a failure of the automatic control system and NOT due to mishandling of air brakes, which could happen on a manned train.

I don't have anything to say on the subject...

Does that mean "We don't need another hero?" again? 

I see another Wall-E movie in the making