Aerial footage showing the aftermath of the Lac-Megantic rail disaster. (Photo: Ministry of Public Security (Quebec)
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Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) solicited public feedback on possible federal safety regulations that could be repealed or modified to achieve “meaningful burden reduction while continuing to meet statutory obligations and ensure the safety of the U.S. transportation system.”
Unsurprisingly, Class I railroads through the Association of American Railroads (AAR) jumped at the chance to put their profit-hungry agenda ahead of the safety of its workers and the general public by advocating to remove 80 time-tested safety rules from the books.
At the top of their list is a request to repeal the Federal Railroad Administration’s two-person crew rule. The AAR believes that it is less costly to operate trains with only one person. However, doing so disregards the proven safety advantages of two-person train crews and the additional benefits that allow for faster response times during derailments or other incidents.
Look no further than the Lac-Megantic rail disaster in 2013 as the reason why a two-person crew is critical to safety. In that horrific incident, a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in a small French-Canadian town, causing a massive fire that killed 47 people and destroyed half of the downtown area. A contributing factor to the tragedy was the railroad’s use of a single-person train crew, which made it impossible to perform the necessary and proper brake test that could have prevented the runaway train and subsequent derailment.
In an effort to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the United States, the FRA implemented a minimum crew size regulation in 2024.
“The AAR has characterized these regulations as obsolete or burdensome or outdated, but they are meant to save lives and protect rail workers as well as the general public,” said BLET National President Mark Wallace. “Overturning the two-person crew regulation would be a huge step backwards for safety in America, and would be a disgrace to the memory of those who lost their lives in Lac-Megantic in 2013.”