(The Chicago Tribune posted the following article by Frank James on its website on March 12.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The growing use by railroad companies of remote-control technology that permits freight trains to operate without humans in the cabs was criticized Tuesday by labor groups which called the trend a threat to worker and public safety and susceptible to terrorism.
But the industry and the Federal Railroad Administration, the agency that oversees rail traffic, defended the practice, with industry officials saying the technology, generally used in rail yards and not over-the-road, was safer than conventional methods of moving trains. The technology’s proponents said the unions’ concern wasn’t so much safety as protecting members’ jobs.
“We hear a lot about homeland security these days,” said Don Hahs, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers at a rally outside the offices of the Federal Railroad Administration. “When locomotives are controlled by radio signal with a remote transmitter, you have to believe that if terrorists wanted to take control of an unmanned locomotive, they could obtain a transmitter.
“Given the hazardous and nuclear material cargoes in many rail yards around the country, an unmanned locomotive, controlled remotely could become a deadly weapon,” that could harm surrounding communities, he said.
“It defies common sense that we should have something this big run by remote control,” said James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “It’s a hare-brained idea whose time has not come.”
Teamsters officials joined those from the AFL-CIO, including Secretary General Richard Trumka, and Pat Friend, head of the Association of Flight Attendants, as labor groups presented a united front with the engineers.
Opponents of the remote-control technology also cited 40 accidents in the last two years that they said were related to the radio-controlled locomotives, including the February death of a railroad worker in Syracuse, N.Y.
Critics say railroad companies add to the risk by often relying on minimally trained workers — some with just 80 hours of experience — to operate the remote controls instead of using certified engineers who are required to undergo 9 to 18 months of training.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., the senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a letter Monday to agency administrator Allan Rutter citing concerns about worker and public safety and urging action by the Railroad Administration.
The agency said Tuesday that it monitors the railroads’ use of the new technology.
“Based on safety data gathered to date, there is nothing to indicate that remote control operations should be banned from use,” the agency’s statement said.
By using the technology, rail companies can reduce the size of crews needed to move locomotives to two people from three, reducing costs, said Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads in Washington.
“What it really boils down to on the part of (the engineers union) is the potential job loss to their members because the technology is being handled by members of the United Transportation Union,” a rival union, he said.
But White said the new technology also represents an improvement. Before the arrival of remote-control, train crews would use either hand signals or radios to communicate and those methods were more prone to the type of miscommunication that causes accidents, White said.
“There’s absolutely no indication that it isn’t safe,” said White. “In fact the indications are that it is safer than the conventional technology.” He noted that CSX Transportation said after a year of using the remote-control technology accident rates dropped in rail yards where the technology was used compared to the yards without it.