Union Pacific Railroad

The mobile PPM process treats polychlorinated biphenyl- (PCB-) contaminated oU at ambient temperatures and pressures and results in a clean, recyclable oil, according to the vendor. PPM Canada, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of USPCI, was founded in 1983 to provide PCB destruction methods. According to the vendor, while the process has been used extensively for PCB-contaminated oil, the process is still in development for soils and is not commercially available. Safety-Kleen Corporation has since bought out USPCI. The process was developed for Union Pacific Railroads. All information is from the vendor and has not been independently verified. 

Fig. B-21. Hops are grown for the making of beer. (Courtesy, Union Pacific Railroad Company, Omaha, Neb.)...

Fig. M-57. Cows convert the photosynthrtic energy derived from solar energy and stored In grass into milKfor humans. (Courte, Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Nebr.)...

In 2004, a Union Pacific Railroad train failed to stop at a signal and collided with another train in Macdona, Texas, resulting in 3 fatalities and 51 injuries [28]. 

The improved financial health of the industry has reduced, but not eliminated, concerns about myopic behavior. In the mid-1990s the Union Pacific Railroad acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Southern Pacific System. The railroad grew in size by eighty percent. In an effort to recoup some of the costs of acquisition, and to demonstrate to shareholders that the acquisitions had improved profitability, the railroad took several cost-saving actions. Some of these actions, such as a reduction in the number of dispatchers and supervisors, had safety implications. Fortunately, from a societal point of view, this attempt to cheat backfired because the reduction in preventive effort quickly led to a visible increase in service delays and accidents. Shippers and the government became aware of the change in quality, and demanded that the railroad take action to remedy the situation. 

Until the early 1990s most railroads did not have the information necessary to price in this way. There were a few exceptions. The Union Pacific Railroad had a crude system of risk-based pricing, and CSX Transportation had tried to enumerate the costs of cleanup and liability specific to particular commodities. But most railroads charged a standard price mark-up to reflect total accident costs incurred and the liability claims settled. Such a pricing scheme will result in the transportation of too much extremely-hazardous materials, and too little less-hazardous or non-hazardous materials. 

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