BLET Division 28 President Eddie Strom was in Washington D.C. to represent BLET at a roundtable discussion about rail cargo thefts.
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The BLET provided a working railroader’s perspective on the growing trend of rail cargo thefts at a Congressional roundtable discussion last week. Eddie Strom, President of BLET Division 28 in Tucson, Ariz., testified on behalf of the union at the April 29 discussion hosted by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Railroad Subcommittee.
Chairman Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Ranking Member Dina Titus (D-Nev.) said they wanted to hear from a locomotive engineer who operates trains in the American Southwest. Strom works between Southern California and New Mexico, a hotbed for train thieves.
Strom told the members of Congress that thieves have targeted his trains more than once while working as a locomotive engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad. In his remarks to the Committee, he said that excessive train length under the Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) operating model has contributed to the growth in train cargo thefts. According to the AAR, about 64,000 robberies occurred in 2024, an increase of 40% over 2023.
“In the first 20 years I worked on the railroad, it was rare to see any sort of theft,” said Strom, who, prior to the hearing, gathered data from UP and BNSF train crews to back his claims. “But in recent years, I have seen firsthand train robberies, vandalism, and sabotage. And the carriers are turning a blind eye to what’s causing this: PSR. It’s time for carriers to get back to running safer and more efficient railroads for their employees, customers, and the public.”
Strom also testified that PSR-driven job cuts to the ranks of carmen and railroad police officers have made it harder for railroads to respond to raids by thieves. “Having less police officers when there are issues of more train theft and vandalism is not a smart railroad practice,” Strom said.
As BLET has previously reported, highly organized criminal operations have increasingly targeted freight trains. In 2024 alone, railroads suffered approximately $100 million in losses due to cargo theft, according to a report from the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
Please visit the House T&I Committee website for more information and to watch a video of the April 29 roundtable discussion.
