The closest crossing isn't the fastest way on

Anyone who sends hi-rails out knows this. The nearest crossing isn't always where you get on. A skew, a locked gate, a switch in between. Tickets come in before dawn, and whoever knows the line by heart isn't always on shift.

One case on our Try page: a morning's trouble tickets, a hi-rail to each. Yesper ranked the set-on locations by time to the trouble, not distance. In three of four, the closest wasn't the fastest. One siding lay behind its switch, 18 minutes slower than a set-on pad nearly twice as far.

Where to set on is decided before the truck leaves. The locked gate turns up in the ranking instead of at the end of the road. Same for any line and the rest of the Try page: on-track safety planning from a defect report, train-free windows in a month's timetable, a work plan for a culvert.

Try it yourself →