Some of the problems seem almost farcical. This week, however, construction crews found a live bomb in the yard left over from an accident to an ammunition train in 1973. So now the yard has to be combed for more old military bombs, at a time when the facility is most needed. Other sources said even the company's voice mail and payroll systems have collapsed. According to Glen Dayton of the United Transportation Union, four freight trains could not be dispatched from Oakland yesterday because there were not enough locomotives to pull them.
Some shippers say it is taking a month to move a freight car from the West Coast to Texas.
San Francisco-based Chevron Corp. The oil giant has two chemical plants in east Texas that between them produce 2 billion pounds of polyethylene pellets a year. Both plants are served by UP lines. Parker says transit times for his rail shipments are averaging 25 percent to 30 percent longer because of UP delays. That lost time means problems for his manufacturing customers. Chevron has already suffered lost sales and expenses are going up too as it is forced to hire trucks to get its product to customers.