In the final week of legislative session, the Nebraska legislature officially recommended that railroad locomotives should have a two-person crew.
According to the resolution — LR 338 — safety risks posed by shipments of such materials as ethanol, Bakkan crude oil and chlorine could be reduced by requiring a train crew of at least two individuals.
The resolution was sponsored by Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis. The legislature adopted it by a 36-4 vote on May 28.
(The following is a joint statement by Dennis R. Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and John Previsich, President, SMART Transportation Division, regarding questions that have arisen since the fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia on May 12, 2015.)
Previsich
CLEVELAND, May 19 — Members of BLET’s Safety Task Force and SMART Transportation Division’s National Safety Team, in addition to representatives from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters Rail Conference (BMWED), are working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to assist in the investigation of the catastrophic May 12 derailment of Amtrak Train 188.
Significant progress has been made in understanding how the accident occurred on May 12. That portion of the investigation is not yet complete, however, and even more work needs to be done to determine why the events of that tragic night transpired the way they did.
BLET and SMART TD do not make official comments about any ongoing NTSB investigation. Due to the number of press inquiries concerning issues not under investigation, however, we are providing the following information on why Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor are manned by a lone engineer in the control cab and why Positive Train Control (PTC) has not been installed on the Corridor. The answers to both questions begin with the United States Congress.
Pierce
Why a One-Person Train Crew? In 1981, Congress passed legislation (the Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981) that ended the previous Conrail requirement that there be a second crew member in the control cab of commuter rail trains on the Northeast Corridor. Armed with that legislative precedent — and mindful of where its funding originates — Amtrak has since 1983 refused to crew Northeast Corridor trains with more than one employee in the cab – the locomotive engineer. Although BLET and SMART TD have steadfastly maintained that there should be two crew members in the cab of all trains to ensure public safety, only Congress can change the 1981 legislation that reduced crew size on the Northeast Corridor. But this is only one piece of a very large, complex puzzle.
Why No Positive Train Control? On the heels of another catastrophic railroad accident in Chatsworth, Calif., the federal government mandated in 2008 that Positive Train Control (PTC) be put in effect by the end of this year. That was seven years ago. Even with that mandate in place, and with the exception of some railroads such as BNSF Railway, the industry at large has spent the interim finding reasons to avoid implementing PTC technology. They have created the situation about which they all now complain — they say they cannot meet the December 31, 2015 deadline. Each death caused by the delay of PTC implementation is one too many, yet Congress is preparing to consider a blanket 5-year extension to 2020. This is most certainly not in the public interest.
Since 2005, the NTSB has completed 16 investigations of railroad accidents that could have been prevented or mitigated with PTC. These 16 accidents claimed 52 lives — many being BLET and SMART TD members — and injured 942 people, with damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. NTSB has publicly stated that the accident on May 12, 2015 was also PTC preventable. There is no disagreement over the value of PTC technology.
That said, there is no technology available today that can ever safely replace a second crew member in the cab of the locomotive. The only thing on a locomotive that is not a machine is the crew. The uncontrolled external environment in which trains are operated along with regulatory and operational demands of a safe transportation service demand a crew of at least two fully trained and qualified employees in the control cab of every train. PTC is only a safety overlay that ensures a safer operation, and no technology can replace the level of safety provided when two crew members are on board and can serve as a check and balance to one another.
Even with all the safety-related technology that the government has mandated on commercial airlines, the public would never accept an airline operation with a single person in the cockpit. There is no reason that rail employees and rail passengers’ lives should be viewed any differently.
Contrary to what some in government may say, the only place that crew size and PTC do connect is when it comes to funding. That is especially true in the case of Amtrak, because the government has woefully underfunded Amtrak since its inception. Additional crew members and new technology both cost money, and so long as those in Congress see fit to underfund the operation, they undermine their own mandate and shortchange the safety of the traveling public.
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The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents more than 55,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The SMART?Transportation Division is headquartered in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted, Ohio. It is a broad-based, transportation labor union representing about 125,000 active and retired railroad, bus, mass transit and airline workers in the United States. It is a division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers based in Washington, D.C.
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington’s Republican-controlled Senate could set a national precedent with a bill passed Monday night (March 9) that would require up to two railroad workers in the rear of trains carrying crude oil and other hazardous cargo.
Currently, BNSF Railway, the largest freight hauler in Washington, is not required to carry rear brakeman in any of the 28 states where it operates, according to Gus Melonas, a BNSF spokesman.
Two Minnesota lawmakers have introduced legislation in the state’s legislature that would require two persons on all Class I and II carrier freight trains operating in the state.
State Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Dist. 61A) and State Sen. Ann H. Rest (DFL-Dist. 45) introduced H.F. 1166 and S.F. 918 introduced last month in the Minnesota House of Representatives and Senate, respectively.
Both bills state that, if passed, “No person operating or controlling a Class I or Class II railroad may allow the operation of a railroad train or locomotive in this state, used in connection with the movement of freight, without a crew composed of a minimum of two individuals, except as otherwise provided by Code of Federal Regulations, title 49, part 218, subpart B. A person violating this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and liable for a penalty of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000 for a first offense, not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 for a second offense, and not less than $5,000 nor more than $10,000 for a third or subsequent offense.”
S.F. 918 will be heard before the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee on Monday, March 16, at 2 p.m. at the state capitol, Transportation Division State Legislative Director Phillip Qualy said. The Senate Judiciary plans to hear S.F. 918 the following day, March 17.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has yet to schedule a hearing for the companion legislation, H.F. 1166.
“Our state legislation is not federally pre-empted and does not contain language that can be construed as a collective-bargaining area,” Qualy said “Unfortunately, the railroads are misleading the legislature with inaccurate and erroneous information. The carriers’ practice to remove more and more persons from the right-of-ways of American railroads endangers the general public”.
Minnesota has the eighth largest rail network in the United States. The SMART Transportation Division in Minnesota continues to advise the legislature on oil transportation, grade-crossing safety and supports the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Working Family agenda.
The Minnesota Legislature is scheduled to adjourn May 20, 2015.
Members of the SMART Transportation Division’s Washington State Legislative Board have been quite busy in recent weeks.
Working with the board members and state emergency management officials, state senators and representatives of the Washington State Legislature Jan. 29 introduced six bills that could have a direct impact on Transportation Division-represented railroad employees and the safety of the communities in which their trains operate.
House Bill 1809 and Senate Bill 5697 re-establish state-mandated minimum railroad crew-staffing levels on all trains operating in the state.
Also introduced were a yardmaster hours of service bill in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and a rail crew transportation safety bill.
Under the proposed crew-staffing legislation, all trains and yard-switching assignments will be staffed with no less than two qualified employees. Trains designated as hazardous material trains of 50 cars or less, will be staffed with no less than three qualified employees, with the thirdemployee assigned to work on the rear of the train in a position to be able to safely observe and monitor the train.
Trains designated as hazardous material trains of 51 cars or more will be staffed with no less than four qualified employees, with two employees assigned to work on the rear of the train in a position to be able to safely observe and monitor the train.
Hazardous material trains are defined utilizing the current national standards adopted by Department of Transportation and all Class I carriers. The State Utility and Transportation Commission can direct carriers to exceed the minimum requirements if specific conditions affecting safety or security necessitate additional crewmembers.
Hearings on both bills have been tentatively scheduled for Feb. 9 in the House Labor Committee and the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, Transportation Division Washington State Legislative Director Herb Krohn said.
“Our workers know how to run these trains safely, but the railroad refuses to provide adequate staffing, exposing the public and railworkers to death and injury. These bills simply restore Washington State’s commonsense safety standards,” Krohn said.
“We looked at what went wrong in each of the catastrophic explosions and the close calls, and it’s clear that one or two people simply can’t monitor and safely operate these dangerous cargos. Adding even one more person to a train, particularly at the back of the train, will save lives.”
H.B. 1809 was introduced by State Rep. Larry Haler (R-Richland) and currently has a total of 33 additional co-sponsors.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) said, “This bill just requires a minimum level of staffing because an adequately staffed train is a safe train.”
S.B. 5697 was introduced by State Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (R-Wenatchee), Chairman of the Senate Majority Caucus. It currently has 23 additional co-sponsors.
“Safely moving goods through Washington State is in everyone’s interest. The public is counting on us to ensure that trains, no matter what they are transporting, are safely operated,” Evans Parlette said.
“I’ve worked as a conductor for 10 years with a perfect safety record and this bill will make trains safer,” said Local 324 Chairperson and Legislative Rep. Paul McGill of Seattle.
The text of the bills read, in part, “Any person, corporation, company, or officer of the court operating any railroad, or part of any railroad or railway within the state of Washington, and engaged as a common carrier, in the transportation of freight or passengers, who violates any of the provisions of section 3 of this act are guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars and not more than one hundred thousand dollars for each offense.”
Krohn said the bills are in response to concerns raised by emergency management officials who have become aware that the crewmembers on the head end of trains, in most cases, cannot see their train beyond a limited sight distance. Recognizing that the train crews are the first responders, they believe that trains that pose a significant risk to the public need crewmembers on the rear of the train, in a position to be able to see the train and take appropriate action if something goes wrong.
Krohn said he attended a freight mobility roundtable discussion last year featuring a presentation on oil-train safety from emergency responders. “Not aware of who I was, Director of the Seattle Office of Emergency Management Barb Graff mentioned the BNSF Railway one-person crew contract proposed to the members of General Committee of Adjustment GO 001 last year. She said she was glad that it was voted down and said two-person crews were not enough on hazmat trains.”
That led to Krohn and members of the state legislative board working with emergency management officials to get the ball rolling on the two bills.
“As an emergency manager, I plan for disaster and work for safety. Human eyes are key to safety and proper staffing is important, which is why I support this bill,” said Dominic Marzano, emergency manager for Kent, Wash., and division chief of the Kent Fire Department – Regional FireAuthority.
Noting that railroad yardmasters are required to work excessively long hours by railroad carriers, H.B. 1284 and S.B. 5696 will prohibit a yardmaster to “remain or go on duty for a period in excess of twelve consecutive hours…An employee may not remain or go on duty unless that employee has had at least ten consecutive hours off duty during the prior twenty-four hours.”
If the state’s Utilities and Transportation Commission finds that a Class I carrier violates the provisions of these bills, if passed, “the commission may assess a civil penalty of not less than ten thousand dollars and not more than fifty thousand dollars.”
Krohn said that yardmaster and BNSF GO 341 General Chairperson Jeffrey Sellman was the impetus behind these bills and worked tirelessly to advance them in the legislature.
Finally, H.B. 1808 and S.B.5797 will, if passed, “regulate charter party carriers providing railroad crew transportation and every contract crew hauling vehicle with respect to the safety of equipment, driver qualifications, insurance levels, and safety of operations. The commission must adopt rules and require reports as necessary to carry out this chapter regarding contract crew hauling vehicles and establish federal motor vehicle safety standards for contract crew hauling vehicles, regardless of seating capacity, as the minimum safety standards.”
“I am really excited about how we’ve advanced these bills in the legislature,” Krohn said. “They are reasonable bil ls that won’t break the bank of the railroads. They are a reasonable precaution to protect the public and our members.”
Krohn encourages Transportation Division members and all concerned railroad employees to contact their lawmakers and seek their support of these legislative proposals.
The Associated Press article on railroads’ collective push to reduce freight train crews from two persons to one is informative yet fails to address the very real danger of equipment, mechanical or infrastructure failure.
As a matter of record I am a 40-year railroad conductor and chaired my union’s state safety board for 16 years.
The preceding “letter to the editor” written by retired member Lloyd R. Holman was published by the Herald Review on Jan. 22, 2015. Holman is a member of the UTU Alumni Association and is the former local secretary & treasurer and legislative representative of SMART Transportation Division Local 453 at Clinton, Ill. He also served as chairperson of the union’s Illinois State Legislative Board.
With profit seemingly driving all business decisions, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the country’s major railroad companies are continuing their quest to reduce freight trains crews … to one person. Not surprising, but scary.
The railroad bosses are united in their desire for this change, citing technological advances. Labor groups, those living on rail lines and people interested in common sense are opposed. Rail “crews” are already down to two — an engineer who drives the train and a conductor who oversees the long line of cars, communicates with dispatchers and provides a second set of monitoring eyes.
The preceding editorial was published Dec. 29 by The Herald of Everett, Wash. Read the complete editorial here.
The Illinois AFL-CIO has unanimously approved a resolution supporting SMART Transportation Division’s call for federal legislation mandating at least two crew members on all freight trains.
The endorsement came at the organization’s 41st annual Constitutional Convention in Rosemont, Ill.
Citing issues ranging from chronic crew-member fatigue to inadequate crew training to accident prevention and response, the state labor council’s 15-point, two-page document called on the Illinois congressional delegation to vote in favor of House Resolution 3040, the Safe Freight Act, which would require all freight trains in the U.S. to have at least two certified crew members aboard.
The AFL-CIO resolution, submitted by SMART-TD Illinois State Legislative Director Robert W. Guy, charged that community safety is endangered by single-person train operation because the lone employee on board can become overwhelmed with multiple tasks and deadlines while trying to control a heavy train that cannot respond easily to braking commands.
“Railroad operating requirements, and in many cases operating rules themselves, require train crews to perform numerous tasks while concurrently operating moving trains, which the National Transportation Safety Board has labeled ‘task saturation,’” the resolution said.
The AFL-CIO document said overwhelmed crew members could overlook “specific requirements related to the safe operation of a train” and require a second crew member so that a “check-and-balance” system is in place to make sure nobody misses a signal, an instruction or a routine safety practice.
The resolution noted an elusive fact often missing from media accounts of the train-crew issue: the carriers’ current crew-recruitment and training practices often end up rushing freshly trained crew members into very challenging operating environments without the “seasoning” provided by older veterans who have “seen it all” and developed the responses to master even the most sudden and unexpected challenges.
“The general public and the media do not understand how ‘raw’ a new employee can be when challenged with an unexpected situation while trying to control a moving train,” Guy said.
“Currently, new employees operate in the same cab with an older employee who has an appropriate, experienced response to virtually any emergency,” Guy said. “A new employee operating alone in the cab would not have access to that unique resource.”
Guy said there’s really no substitute for the “old heads.”
“Who else is going to know which grade crossings have a bad record?” he asked. “Who else is going to know which stretches of the territory become dangerous when a sudden fog develops, or which signals are easy to misinterpret and which curves can obscure a stopped train just ahead?
“These veteran railroaders are walking encyclopedias of danger and walking manuals of safe practices, and there’s no training program that effectively passes on all of their intricate, intimate, milepost-by-milepost experience to new recruits,” Guy said.
Guy said if the veterans are not in the cab, there’s no way to access their experience in an emergency.
“Company training programs, for the most part, do a very good job of making sure new employees grasp the general principles of operating trains, but only a veteran employee can transmit the specifics associated with each operating territory and come up with the right response when an emergency develops,” he said.
The resolution noted that the need for a second crew member persists because railroads continue to delay addressing the problem of long workdays, irregular assignments and working hours, lost sleep, chronic fatigue and the anxiety associated with maintaining an orderly family and personal life while always “on call.”
The document also cited the railroads “…intentional manipulation of manpower…to maximize profits at the expense of public and employee safety, often times requiring crew members to return to work immediately after the federally mandated minimum rest period has expired.”
“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that the entire Illinois labor movement is behind SMART-TD in its effort to protect railroaders and the public from the dangerous effects of a one-person crew regime,” Guy said.
“All of us are grateful to our brothers and sisters in labor for standing with our members and their families, and the communities in which they live, on what literally could be a life-or-death issue.”
Pictured, from left, are Sheet Metal Local 73 Business Agent Frank Ivonelli, SMART Transportation Division Illinois Legislative Board Chairperson John O’Brien, Sheet Metal Local 73 Business Agent Mike May, SMART General Vice President Rocco Terranova, SMART Transportation Division Alternate Illinois Legislative Director Carl Draper, Guy, Transportation Division Local 265 Secretary & Treasurer Chuck Ruegge, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Sheet Metal Local 265 Business Manager John Boske, SMART Transportation Division Assistant Illinois Legislative Director Joe Ciemny, Sheet Metal Local 1 Business Rep. Larry Louis, Sheet Metal Local 73 Recording Secretary Mike Vittorio, Sheet Metal Local 73 Business Agent Brian Mulheran and Sheet Metal Local 73 Business Agent Dan Ahern.
Of 3,679 ballots returned, 3,056 were in opposition to the crew consist agreement. Nearly the same number of ballots cast were in opposition to a wage and rule settlement offered by the carrier.
Under the proposal, engineers would have received a pay boost, and conductors would have been given the opportunity to become engineers. It also called for the creation of a “master conductor,” who would be responsible for supervising multiple trains from a fixed or mobile location.
The railroad was seeking to operate most of its trains with a single engineer on trains equipped with positive train control, a collision-avoidance system mandated by Congress in 2008.
It maintained that trains carrying hazardous materials, including those with large volumes of crude oil or ethanol, would still have operated with two people on board.
Prior to releasing the complete vote count Sept. 29, GO 001 General Chairperson Randy Knutson had acknowledged earlier in September that the proposal had failed.
“Please be advised that we have completed the tabulation of ratification ballots for the tentative crew consist agreement and wage and rule settlement, and neither agreement was ratified. A more complete summary of the vote will be forthcoming in the next several weeks, but we felt it was important to provide our members with immediate notification that these agreements were not ratified,” Knutson said.
“Moving forward, this office will notify BNSF Labor Relations that we remain open to informal conversation regarding these matters, but will oppose any formal attempt by BNSF to serve notice to change our existing crew consist agreements prior to the attrition of all protected employees.”
The proposed agreement generated a lot of discussion from Transportation Division members around the country.
In a statement posted on the SMART Transportation Division’s website prior to the voting deadline, Transportation Division President John Previsich noted that, “Our constitution grants the general committees jurisdiction in this area and this organization has successfully defended that right over the years through litigation and arbitration. There are no grounds for any entity to interfere with that right and there will be no attack on that authority by this office or any subordinate body of this organization.
“Nonetheless, it should surprise no one that the proposed agreement is generating a great deal of discussion due to its potential impact beyond its own territory. This office will not interfere with the rights of all of our members to engage in that discussion.”
WASHINGTON — How many people does it take to safely operate a freight train?
Two, say railroad labor unions, the Federal Railroad Administration and some members of Congress, arguing that having just one person in the cab of a locomotive was unsafe. They cite a series of deadly accidents involving trains with a solo engineer, including last year’s disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where 47 people were killed after an oil train jumped the tracks.
One, argues the railroad industry, which counters that there’s no data to prove multiple-person crews are safer.
In the final week of legislative session, the Nebraska legislature officially recommended that railroad locomotives should have a two-person crew. 
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington’s Republican-controlled Senate could set a national precedent with a bill passed Monday night (March 9) that would require up to two railroad workers in the rear of trains carrying crude oil and other hazardous cargo.
With profit seemingly driving all business decisions, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the country’s major railroad companies are continuing their quest to reduce freight trains crews … to one person. Not surprising, but scary.
The Illinois AFL-CIO has unanimously approved a resolution supporting SMART Transportation Division’s call for federal legislation mandating at least two crew members on all freight trains.
Of 3,679 ballots returned, 3,056 were in opposition to the crew consist agreement. Nearly the same number of ballots cast were in opposition to a wage and rule settlement offered by the carrier.