Steel Spine, Fractured Life
A Railroader’s Story
The alarm buzzes. It’s not even two in the morning. Dispatch just called. I was supposed to be off until six, but there’s a gap on the board again. No surprise. We’re running skeleton crews—too many guys quit, got fired, or just burned out and disappeared. So here I am, another shift moved up, another night stolen from me.
No time to eat. No time to fully wake up. I grab my bag, already packed from the day before, and hit the road. My kids won’t know I left. I haven’t had a real weekend home in two months.
I clock in. They’ve got me running a loaded freight over 11,000 feet long. Two miles of steel behind me. And I’m running it alone. They call it “efficient.” I call it suicidal.
No conductor. No second set of eyes. Just me, a flickering cab light, and whatever instinct I’ve got left.
There’s no place to stop, no place to grab a coffee, no time to stretch my legs. My back’s on fire before the second hour. I’ve barely slept, but I’m responsible for thousands of tons of moving machinery that cuts through towns and neighborhoods. Crossings get blocked. Families sit in their cars while I crawl by. Sometimes I wonder if they know I’m up here, barely holding it together.
Last week, I caught a bad coupler at the yard—worn, clicking wrong. I flagged it. Manager told me, “We’re behind. It’ll hold. Roll it.” So I rolled it. That’s what you do if you want to keep your job. You shut your mouth and move the freight.
I’ve seen guys report safety issues and lose everything. Blacklisted. Fired. One guy I knew, they hung his photo up in the supervisor’s office like a trophy. Everyone got the message: speak up, and you’re gone.
The policies? Don’t get me started. I’m on-call 29 out of 30 days under “Hi-Viz.” If my wife goes into labor, if I catch the flu, if my mom dies—I better hope it lines up with my one allowed off-day, or else I take a hit on my record. Three hits, you’re disciplined. Five? You’re terminated.
I sleep in terminals. I sit in hotels for 16 hours unpaid, waiting to be called again. I eat out of vending machines or whatever I can grab before a shift. I haven’t had a holiday meal at home since before the pandemic. I missed my daughter’s birthday. Again.
We used to say the pay made up for it. Not anymore. Inflation wiped that out. With all the downtime, I’m making maybe $25, $26 an hour. And I pay out of pocket for every meal, every Uber between terminals, every expense. Corporate keeps record profits. I get a cot and a warning not to complain.
They say they’re going to automate it all soon. One-man crews today. No-man tomorrow. And where do I go then? What happens to guys like me? We gave our lives to this steel spine, and now it’s being hollowed out from the inside—cut down by shareholders and speculators who don’t even know what a brake test is.
They spent billions buying back stock. They let infrastructure rot. The bridges are crumbling. The yards are understaffed. Trains are derailing—and not because of bad luck. Because they refuse to fix the damn problems.
I remember East Palestine. I remember watching that footage and thinking, It could’ve been me. It could’ve been my train. It could’ve been my town.
The other day, I sat at a siding for six hours. No explanation. Just waiting. When they finally cleared us to move, I felt it—a subtle drag, a resistance in the couplers. I knew something was wrong. But they were yelling on the radio: “Go. Make the window. Clear the block.”
So I moved it.
That night, I had trouble sleeping. Not just from the noise or the hotel mattress. But from the feeling in my gut that something was coming.
Not for me, necessarily. Not tomorrow. But soon.
Because a system like this doesn’t bend forever.
It snaps.
And when it does, people die.
Overview For over a century, the railroad has been the lifeblood of American industry and logistics. It is the steel spine of our nation—moving goods, resources, and people across vast distances. But today, that lifeline is under attack from within: not by foreign enemies, but by Wall Street profiteers and corporate mismanagement that has gutted the workforce, endangered communities, and degraded the infrastructure we all rely on.
This article lays out the truth: what the railroad workers are enduring, how the system is failing, and most importantly, how the National Socialist American Party (NSAP) will fix it.
We are here to say to every rail worker: We see you. We hear you. We are with you.
WHO is being affected?
Railroad workers—engineers, conductors, dispatchers, maintenance crews, and yard laborers—have been subjected to brutal scheduling, unsafe working conditions, retaliatory management, and now face job insecurity from automation and outsourcing. Shippers are being extorted by monopoly pricing. Communities are being poisoned by preventable derailments. Passengers are stuck with unreliable service. The entire nation suffers when freight piles up, trains stall, and trust in the system collapses.
WHAT are the problems?
- Railroads cut over 30% of their workforce under “Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR),” leaving skeleton crews and exhausted workers.
- Attendance policies like BNSF’s “Hi-Viz” require workers to be on-call 29 out of 30 days. Workers are punished for being sick, for family emergencies, or simply for needing rest.
- Freight trains have doubled in length without adequate staff or inspection. Many exceed two miles and routinely block crossings for hours.
- Amtrak relies on private freight railroads for 97% of its routes. Passenger trains are sidelined and delayed due to freight priority.
- Safety violations and whistleblower retaliation are rampant. Over 700 workers resigned from BNSF alone after Hi-Viz. Hundreds more have filed safety complaints, often ignored or punished.
- Since 2010, Class I railroads spent $190 billion on stock buybacks instead of improving infrastructure.
- Rail labor unions are constantly undermined. Even Congress stepped in to break a strike in 2022, ignoring workers’ demands for basic sick leave.
- Railroad workers have been told to ignore mechanical defects on freight cars to avoid delays. Employees have testified under oath that management has pressured them to send unsafe trains down the line—trains with known broken couplers, faulty brakes, or defective wheels.
- Whistleblowers have been fired for reporting critical safety issues. At one yard, a fired employee’s photo was hung like a hunting trophy—a warning to others not to speak up. This isn’t fiction. It’s real. This is how rail companies intimidate workers into silence.
- There are hundreds of documented OSHA complaints—yet many are dismissed, delayed, or quietly buried. Justice often comes years later in court—long after a worker’s life or career has been destroyed.
WHEN and WHERE is this happening?
From the yards of Chicago to the tunnels of Baltimore, from the mountains of Colorado to the ports of California—this is a nationwide crisis. It has escalated steadily since 2017, when PSR was widely adopted, but the roots go deeper: decades of deregulation, consolidation, and Wall Street looting. Rail workers began sounding the alarm before the pandemic. They were ignored. Then came COVID-19, layoffs, supply chain breakdowns, and finally the East Palestine disaster.
HOW is it happening?
Private ownership of critical national infrastructure has turned railroads into cash cows for shareholders. Hedge funds dictate policy. CEOs slash jobs and delay maintenance to meet stock targets. Regulatory agencies are either too slow or too weak. The result? An industry that runs on the blood and sweat of a shrinking, overburdened workforce—while the risks to public safety grow by the day.
WHY does it matter?
Because without rail, America doesn’t move. The supply chain collapses. Prices rise. Goods stop flowing. And more tragically: workers die, towns are evacuated, and trust in our national system is shattered. Rail is one of the most efficient, low-emission ways to move freight. But when managed by corporations who don’t care about life, it’s turned into a ticking time bomb.
That is why the NS American Party is stepping in.
The NS American Party Solution: Nationalize the Rails
We echo the call made by the Railroad Workers United (RWU): the railroads must be taken out of private hands and brought under national control.
No more negotiating with the CEOs who broke the system. No more taxpayer bailouts while workers get nothing. The rails belong to the people.
We propose the creation of a National Rail Authority (NRA) that will take control of all track infrastructure, rolling stock, depots, scheduling systems, and employee standards. All former Class I and regional infrastructure will be consolidated under one publicly-owned system. All workers will be transitioned into public employment with federal benefits, union protection, and local workplace representation.
The NRA will not only regulate, but directly operate rail freight and passenger services. Regional managers will be elected from the workforce, and service quality standards will be set at the national level.
Private rail operations will be phased out or absorbed. No more profit extraction from a vital public asset.
Problem-Solution Table: NSAP Action Plan
| Problem | NSAP Solution |
|---|---|
| Crew shortages, exhaustion, and suicide rates are rising | Nationalized hiring under the NRA. Public sector pay scales, guaranteed 7-day sick leave, protected work-life balance. Workers will be treated as civil servants. |
| Unsafe two-mile-long trains with minimal oversight | Train length regulations under federal law. National safety inspectors on every line. Crew minimums based on train weight and length. |
| Whistleblower retaliation and safety suppression | NRA Inspector General office to receive, investigate, and enforce all safety complaints. Whistleblowers given protected status and awarded compensation if mistreated. |
| Monopoly freight pricing and degraded service | End private freight rail monopolies. All freight pricing set by transparent public formula with cost-plus structure. Public rail will serve all shippers equally. |
| Infrastructure bottlenecks and failing bridges | National Infrastructure Corps formed to rebuild tracks, bridges, yards, and tunnels. Annual federal budget line-item for rail maintenance and expansion. |
| Passenger trains delayed by freight | NRA governs all scheduling and traffic control. Passenger and commuter service has protected priority. |
| Automation without worker protection | No automation without public hearings and binding agreements guaranteeing no net job losses. Any displaced workers will be retrained and reassigned within the NRA. |
| Deregulated hazardous material transport | Full national review of all hazmat routes. Special Hazmat Divisions to monitor, inspect, and escort high-risk cargo. National Emergency Response Units stationed along corridors. |
| Stock buybacks over investment | Stock buybacks banned permanently. All profits from public rail re-invested into infrastructure, training, and bonuses for safe operations. |
| Amtrak underfunded and vulnerable | Amtrak dissolved and fully merged into the NRA. Nationwide expansion of passenger rail, with high-speed corridors and rural links prioritized. |
Conclusion: Rebuilding America’s Steel Spine
To the men and women working on the rails: you are not alone. The NS American Party stands with you. We will fight to restore dignity, safety, and national service to an industry that has been hijacked by greed.
We want an America where railroaders can raise families, live healthily, and come home safe. Where railroads are public goods, not private toys. Where freight and passengers move quickly, safely, and proudly under the Stars and Stripes.
Reclaim the rails. Rebuild the nation. Restore dignity to the workers who keep America moving.
Join the movement. Support the Nationalization of American Rail. And let us once again make the railways the symbol of American strength, discipline, and unity.
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