Of course it is. Container thefts are just an insurance claim for the railroad, in the same way accidents are. Shippers/cosignees don't care because, again, just an insurance claim to them. It's only a problem if high value loads (ice cream, meat, premium electronics like 4K TVs, iphones, CPUs or graphics cards) are stolen but most people are aware that high value loads are sent by truck and not train as a team truck is objectively faster (65mph national/55mph California vs 35-45 mph RR average, plus siding waits).

As for the general mess... yeah it is a mess. The railroad is a freight business and freight doesn't care if there's shredded trash everywhere. Railroad crews in LA get all sorts of shit (including... actual human feces), bottles, rocks, whatever thrown at them nightly when their trains wake up the homeless living in the right-of-way. When workers are hurt it's just an insurance claim, unless the train stops in which case it becomes an actual problem.

Anyway the city of San Jose almost sued UP over this, so here's the official company line on it:

https://www.up.com/aboutup/community/inside_track/compassionate-response-to-home
lessness.htm

By "actual problem", like any transportation business the railroads only make money when the equipment is moving. So long as the equipment's ability to keep moving is not affected, the problem can be tolerated. It's only when the equipment stops does a problem emerge. Look at the Oskar Grant protests - when protesters stopped BART trains, it basically stopped BART systemwide. When protesters stopped Union Pacific/Amtrak trains @ Embarcadero, it stopped most UP activity between Roseville, Stockton and Salinas. And thus, UP's own police along with the Sheriff and TSA had the track cleared in ~20 minutes whereas BART had to suspend most service. I'd know... I was on the damn train and had to get a hotel for the night as there was no way for me to get home as the substitute bus drivers had all gone home (and this was a deliberate tactic of the protesters).

I'm certain you remember this because Thanksgiving '14 had a big riot in Oakland, and a huge sideshow near the port that temporarily shut down some RR services. There was a /pol/ thread (back before /pol/ was fully racist) and it was amusing watching the radio-equipped cars drive off while everyone else got bottled and busted by the police. The ensuing impound lot auction was a party too, you could get anything you wanted no reserve.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/12/08/berkeley-protest-150-people-arrested-afte
r-shutting-down-i-80/

On that same point people wonder why many people in the Bay Area prefer Amtrak and commuter services, it's because they don't tolerate the protesting. Nothing more frustrating than not being able to go home because the train station is physically blocked.

LA is a bit different since the LAPD are racist and will actually crack skulls (and because of this LA Metro is far safer than BART), but the same basic ideas apply to the ROW homeless.

Anyway, homeless people have an impact on railfanning in general because they get in the way, cause trouble, or try to steal cameras. These videos are not my own but it gives a good idea of what happens when you want to take a picture of trains around crazy people. I'd be lying if I said they didn't exist.

https://youtu.be/-Abg7Y4Vjrw?t=158

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59rEYmIzyY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gKrx057UuE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-uQzdbzdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrNY6rixsh8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyzcYLYLppQ

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-sacramento-tent-city-041509-2009apr15-
story.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWlErrCOC3k

Note the cargo stolen: things that are valuable but durable and not perishable. Nike shoes, sports branded gear, car batteries and car tires.

>>4670

Just a quick note: these scooters are notable because most CA city governments consider them abandoned property/trash as most of the scooters operated without an official permit or docking stations. Because of this, homeless people were freely allowed to destroy them if they wanted, and often did. The thing is the scooters would beep loudly if they had no charge, which they never did, so the homeless would do society a favor and make them shut up by smashing them. This peaked in summer '17 but it still happens, as evidenced in this video. I've also come across scooter piles in the past week, mostly down by Gish rd in San Jose. The scooter piles are very close to the stolen bike piles.

Also, unfortunately because the catalog had to be purged I can't just point you to my older thread showing all the homeless people living up in UP ROWs around the Bay Area. If I can remember to go dig them out of my archive I'll post them here again.

>>4667
*BuMp!*

>>4667
This has been going on for a long time and not on a small scale.

I recall watching "20/20" or "60 Minutes" back in 1992 where they profiled these kinds of train thefts. The news crew paced several trains in southern California with a camera and you could watch as people walked along the TOFC's and cutting the locks on the trailers while the train was doing track speed of 50 MPH or something close to that. Next you'd see them tossing boxes of home electronics, CD players, etc out and they'd have someone following along on the adjacent highway who would scoop the loot up. Crazy $hit. Organized too, some were observed using cell phones and 2-way radios, and had chase vehicles. Although I did wonder if the "2-way radios" were radio scanners tuned to frequencies of interest.

>>5001

Caltrain keeps their property clean, much to the chargin of certain liberals who don't like it when the transit police sweep homeless out. This is a UP problem, because UP is a profit-driven enterprise that is unconcerned with accidents much like it's predecessor SP.

it is real

>>5005
Ha!, I don't see any evidence that the mass amounts of trash shown in that video was actually looted from freight cars. That's the characteristic sign of druggies & thieves that typically make up the homeless bum population that has been left unchecked. If there's one thing these street scum incessantly do, that's root through dumpsters and haul away anything and everything they find in there and then bring it to a location they feel comfortable so they can sort through it looking for anything of perceived value. I see this all the time in my region and several of us have been actively combatting it for years now.

When I first viewed this my immediate thought was this is in the middle of a homeless encampment. Sure enough, take a look at all the homeless RV's along the road on the right hand side of the video. This is just the dregs of society creating filth and no one wants to clean up and deal with the source of the problem.

A good spot that provides content for youtube videographers looking for advertising clicks on their faux concerns.

>>5012
oof

>>5014
This is South Africa?

Whoopsy-doodles! Same stretch of track that had hobos robbing the trains just had a derailment. https://www.foxla.com/news/cargo-train-derails-in-lincoln-heights

>>5012
Even fucking railfans think there are intermodal containers full of Amazon packages running out of the port of LA. Y'all stupid motherfuckers sometimes, especially Kartma, who is a racist prick.

Union Pacific Bashes LA's Social Justice Reform, Threatens To Leave City Amid Soaring Train Thefts

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/union-pacific-bashes-las-social-justice-refo
rm-threatens-leave-city-soaring-train-thefts

A top Union Pacific Railroad official threatened to leave Los Angeles over the District Attorney's progressive measures to lower criminal theft offenses amid a wave of criminal gangs looting rail cars.

Adrian Guerrero, Union Pacific's director of public affairs, wrote a letter to LA County District Attorney George Gascón, denouncing the local government's relaxed criminal policies, or rather "well-intentioned social justice goals," as a catalyst for a wave of rail car thefts.

>"We find ourselves coming back to the same results with the Los Angeles County criminal justice system. Criminals are caught and arrested, turned over to local authorities for booking, arraigned before local courts, charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the criminal is released after paying a nominal fine," wrote Guerrero.

He said most criminals robbing trains search for Amazon and UPS packages, are released back onto the streets within a day.

>I’m told by law enforcement these @UPS bags are especially sought after by thieves opening cargo containers… they are often full of boxes with merchandise bound for residential addresses. More valuable than say, a cargo container full of low value bulky items like toilet paper. pic.twitter.com/Tj5bQNIeby

— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) January 13, 2022

"Even with all these arrests made, the no-cash bail policy and extended timeframe for suspects to appear in court is causing re-victimization to UP by these same criminals," Guerrero continued. "In fact, criminals boast to our officers that charges will be pled down to simple trespassing – which bears no serious consequence."

"Without any judicial deterrence or consequence, it is no surprise that over the past year, UP has witnessed the significant increase in criminal rail theft described above," he said.

"While we understand the well-intended social justice goals of the policy, we need our justice system to support our partnership efforts with local law enforcement, hold these criminals accountable, and most importantly, help protect our employees and the critical local and national rail network."

>>5019
UPS uses containers on trains for residential delivery. So yes, it is equivalent to think of it as "Amazon packages" for the room temperature IQed.

>>5023
nazi article written by nazi guy (called "tyler durden", what's up with that?) on nazi website reliably informs you, the smoothbrained wannabe fascist that LA is a lawless hellhole based on the fact that the alt-right wet-dream PRIVATE POLICE FORCE run by UP is too busy eating donuts to stop five guys with crowbars using a stopped train as a stop-n-shop.

and the absolute waste of spunk telling me this has taken a nazi-ass literal holocaust denier's webcomic as their illustration.

what a fucking joke, take a look at yourself the next time you bang out some half-baked shit.

yeah dude, the reason LAPD aren't doing shit about this is because it's UP's responsibility, and UP don't give a shit because, drum roll:

*there's not that much theft going on, this is a manufactroversy designed to get boomers in red states jerking it*

that's why ben shapiro is making videos about it, that's why it's in front of your eyes, because you are the alt-right's stupid, pliable audience and you'll guzzle down three more brain force before dinner

>>5025
This doesn't look like 5 people...
>>5014

You know what? As a Coast Starlight rider who has put up with Union Pacific's bullshit for too long, I think this couldn't have happened to a nicer railroad.

Anyway, apparently local news in LA has taken more of an interest to this story. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/los-angeles-cargo-train-theft-packages-
missing-delayed-fedex/2765071/

>>5023

Don't forget that the District Attorney of the County of Los Angeles, George Gascon, is a George Soros plant.

>>5025
I think you got the wrong chan bud, 4chan is three houses down

>>5036
4chan is on top of the LA container theft issue
https://boards.4channel.org/news/thread/993009/90-trane-cargo-containers-looted-
evra-days-in-da

>>5023

>A top Union Pacific Railroad official threatened to leave Los Angeles over the District Attorney's progressive measures to lower criminal theft offenses amid a wave of criminal gangs looting rail cars.

God, if only! With UP exiting Santa Cruz, if UP yields all local Socal services to shortlines then Sacramento will have everything it needs for a CA public freight operator. Already happened with the NCRA/SMART and there is a strong movement to do it in San Francisco especially with the Santa Cruz exit. With UP gone (or at least banned to ~3 intermodal facilities for interstate trains only) CA can fully leverage it's rail system and become an even larger industrial superpower.

I fully support this and hope it happens. Imagine the memes.

Fucking hobos are now packing, since firearms were among the cargo. https://www.marketwatch.com/discover?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketwatch.com%2Famp
%2Fstory%2Fdozens-of-guns-among-items-stolen-from-cargo-trains-in-los-angeles-01
643583940&link=sfmw_tw#https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/dozens-of-guns-amon
g-items-stolen-from-cargo-trains-in-los-angeles-01643583940?mod=dist_amp_social

>>5083
is that a virus

>>5001

>>5107

The delay and waste isn't because they wanted to try to make a Hyperloop. It's a mix of stubborn farmers and goldbricking contractors. I'm sure when America loses WWIII and California gets occupied by the Chinese, we'll finally get our bullet train between Sodom and Gomorrah.

>>5107

CA's HSR program is effectively heart+spinal surgery for the state's mass transit network, right now the spinal replacement is complete awaiting transplant in the next few years. Heart and brain connections to LA and San Francisco will occur over the latter part of this decade.

It's always been this way though; here's a photo I took off the metrolink in 2020.

Sorry it's not of the epicenter of the garbage and also I have a Samsung.

Seems to me the issue could be solved by a better placement of the containers. Instead of using a 40 foot container use two 20 foots and load them with the doors facing inwards. If you have to use a 40 foot container, a simple addition to the rail car that would mimic the cab protectors on flat bed trucks would provide a barrier to prevent the doors being opened even if the locks were cut.