We’re moving our weekly crew bid close from 1200 Tuesday to 1600 Friday starting Jan 10 to better align with weekend service forecasts and cut down on overtime call-ins. If you manage rosters, check the new RailOps template and flag if your relief pools look thin — District C is currently short 7 qualified conductors on the PM turns. Has anyone else seen vacancy rates drop after a similar shift?
We trialed a Friday close on Line B in October — overtime pages dipped about 12%, but Monday swaps ticked up when weather shifted. In RailOps I run a “quals expiring <30d” filter on Wednesday and tag reliefs, then set a thin-pool alert for PM turns so when “District C is currently short 7” it auto-surfaces cross-qualified yard folks. Just watch Friday bid fatigue; a 1400 push reminder has saved us a few 2 a.m. fire drills.
In District C we set RailOps ‘relief pool <3’ alerts; 1600 Friday cut scramble calls, but weather spikes Mondays…