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THE LAUNCH DOCK – Special Feature

Merchant Ship Collective — “Start small. Launch smart. Grow loud.”

The Cost of a Shortcut

In small towns across Missouri, the tracks run through more than land — they run through the lives of the people who live beside them. Stand at any crossing in Warrenton, Wright City, Truesdale, Jonesburg, High Hill, New Florence, or Montgomery City, and you’ll feel it before you see it: the ground trembling, the air tightening, and then a freight train — two miles long, roaring through communities it does not serve, cannot stop for, and is not required to protect.

These trains carry millions of dollars in freight.
But they pass through places where families walk across the tracks to get home.
Where school buses idle within feet of danger.
Where a single misjudged second can end a life.

Railroads call this “efficiency.”
But rural communities live with the truth:

This is a system where profit outranks people.

A System Designed for Danger

A freight train stretching two miles cannot stop quickly — not for a driver, not for a pedestrian, not for anyone. Stopping distance can exceed a mile. And as trains grow longer, the danger around every crossing intensifies.

Federal data shows rising fatalities involving trains and pedestrians (Federal Railroad Administration, 2023). These are not careless people. These are neighbors navigating a landscape built around freight, not safety.

When the physical environment leaves too little room for error, tragedy becomes predictable — not accidental.

Who These Trains Actually Serve

Despite cutting straight through our towns, these trains are not here for us.

They haul:

• Grain for multinational agricultural corporations

• Fuel and chemicals for industrial suppliers

• Manufactured goods for national retailers

• Bulk freight for global logistics networks

(GAO, 2023)

Local communities absorb:

• Risk

• Noise

• Delays

• Blocked crossings

• Fatalities

Railroads absorb:

• Revenue

• Efficiency gains

• Shareholder value

The math is simple:
corporations benefit — rural communities bear the danger.

Who Gets Protected — and Who Gets Paid

Here’s the part most people never hear:

The companies operating these trains are among the wealthiest in the transportation sector — and their executive compensation structures reward the very practices that make communities less safe.

Laying Off Workers While Posting Record Profits

Over the last decade, major freight railroads embraced Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) — an efficiency model that slashed:

• Crews

• Support staff

• Maintenance workers

• Safety roles

Class I railroads cut nearly 30% of their workforce between 2011 and 2021.

The freight didn’t shrink.
The payroll did.

Executive Bonuses Tied to Risky “Efficiency”

While communities shouldered the danger, executives collected:

• Multi-million-dollar compensation packages

• Bonuses tied to operating ratio (improved by cutting labor)

• Incentives dependent on fewer crews and faster freight

At Union Pacific, CEO compensation regularly exceeded $13–15 million, while staffing hit historic lows.

Taxpayers Subsidize What Railroads Don’t

Railroads benefit from:

• Federal grants

• Federal loans

• Public–private infrastructure partnerships

• State-funded roadway improvements

• National programs supporting crossing upgrades

Yet the railroads themselves are not required to:

• Shorten their trains

• Staff their crews safely

• Reduce blocked crossings

• Build overpasses

• Adopt near-miss safety reporting systems proven to reduce accidents

The public invests in safety.
Executives profit from efficiency.
Communities absorb the risk.

This isn’t innovation — it’s extraction.

Why Train Length Keeps Increasing

Train length has nearly doubled in recent years, but not because it’s safer — because it’s cheaper.

Longer trains require:

• Fewer crews

• Fewer locomotives

• Fewer shifts

• Lower operating costs

But they also create:

• Longer blockages

• Emergency delays

• Increased fatality risk

• More dangerous pedestrian behavior

• Slower mechanical response times

The cost savings go upward.
The consequences fall downward.

When the Law Protects Freight — Not Families

Under federal preemption (49 U.S.C. § 10501):

• States cannot limit train length

• Cities cannot fine for blocked crossings

• Counties cannot force safety upgrades

• Railroads are not obligated to improve crossings

• Local governments have almost no authority

A train can legally block every crossing in your town for an hour.
Fire trucks, ambulances, and police can be trapped on the wrong side.
Children can be forced to wait — or walk.

And the railroads who cause this?
They face no penalty.

This isn’t a regulatory oversight.
It’s a policy choice — one that prioritizes corporate efficiency over rural life.

A Community’s Call to Action

Rail crossing deaths are not unavoidable.
They are the direct result of decisions about:

• Staffing

• Infrastructure

• Train length

• Policy

• Cost-cutting

• Accountability

Entrepreneurs understand this better than anyone:

If your business model endangers people, your model is broken.
If your success depends on externalizing your risk, it is not success — it is exploitation.

Communities deserve:

• Modernized crossings

• Grade-separated overpasses

• Shorter trains

• Updated warning systems

• Emergency protocols that don’t depend on luck

• Investment equal to the value extracted from them

No corporation should profit where a community cannot safely live.

Tribute to the Lives Lost

Before we talk about what a safer future could look like, we need to acknowledge something deeper:
human life has been lost.

Some were walking home.
Some were crossing with friends.
Some were driving a familiar road they’d traveled a thousand times.
And some were simply standing in a moment none of us will ever fully understand — but we all can understand this: the systems that could have prevented these tragedies are careless.

Their names aren’t listed in federal safety reports.
Their stories aren’t included in industry briefings.
Their families grieve in silence while the freight moves on.

In small towns, every loss ripples:

a neighbor,
a cousin,
a classmate,
a friend of a friend.

a family member.

People remember where they were when the sirens passed.
They remember the moment the news spread — sometimes faster than the train itself.
And they remember the heaviness that settles over the community in the days that follow.

People die on these tracks because the environment leaves too little margin for error, and too few protections to safeguard them in a vulnerable moment.

We honor each life lost by refusing to accept these deaths as normal, inevitable, or acceptable.

A Different Future Is Possible

A system built around freight efficiency is not the only option.

A system built around humanity is possible.

Policy can change.
Infrastructure can change.
Corporate obligations can change.
The weight of risk can be redistributed.
The power imbalance can be corrected.

The tracks will always run through our towns.
But the danger doesn’t have to.

No loss should ever be routine.
No young life should ever be expendable.
No community should be left to grieve while freight rolls on unchanged.

It is time for a system where safety is not optional —
where human life is the highest priority,
and where rural voices are finally heard.

In solidarity,

Lyndsay LaBrier
Merchant Ship Collective

References

Federal Railroad Administration. (2023). Highway-rail grade crossing safety statistics. U.S. Department of Transportation.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2023). Freight rail safety: Train length, blocked crossings, inspection practices (GAO-23-105).
49 U.S.C. § 10501. Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act.

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