(The following story by Greg Rohloff was published in the January 7
online edition of the Amarillo Globe-News.)
AMARILLO, Texas — Burlington Northern Santa Fe began training classes Monday as a first step toward the introduction of remote-control locomotives in its train yard.
About 75 to 80 employees were involved in the first class, said Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Joe Faust.
The change will take about six weeks to complete, he said, and once Amarillo’s switching yard employees are trained and certified by the Federal Railroad Administration, they will join about 550 Burlington Northern Santa Fe employees nationwide who have been trained in the system since the project started in February.
The introduction of the new technology is spurring a dispute between the railroad and one of its unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, over how safe the new technology is.
The railroad, citing a study by the Canadian National Railroad, thinks the use of remote-controlled locomotives will improve switching yard safety, Faust said.
Terry Briggs, chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Texas legislative board, said the union thinks the Canadian study was tainted because the Canadian National Railroad owns a company that makes a version of the remote-control technology.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe plans to use two employees on the ground who would have train controls on their safety vests to move the train at the switching yard.
Briggs, a locomotive engineer for 31 years, said the engineers’ union, which has broken ranks on the use of the system with the other large rail workers union, the United Transportation Union, doubts that safety would be improved.
“What we are in is an experiment with this heavy equipment,” Briggs said.
Trains can be a mile long, he said, which is too long for someone not in the locomotive cab to see fully what is ahead of a moving train.
“They’re taking the eyes and ears of the locomotive engineer from the cab and putting them on the ground,” Briggs said, leaving no one to see what might be in the way of the train once it is moving.
Faust, in defending the technology, said the Canadian National Railroad cut accidents by 44 percent from 1997 to 2001 with the use of the remote-control technology.
But Briggs argues that the engineers’ union has counted numerous accidents across the United States that have resulted in amputations and deaths.
An engineer in the cab is in better position to decide whether a signal to move a train is valid rather than someone on the ground, he said.
The use of remote-control locomotive operations in the switching yards is unlikely to cause any job losses at this point.
In a prepared statement, Faust said no Burlington Northern Santa Fe employee has been laid off as a result of remote-control locomotive operations.
“Locomotive engineers on jobs where RCL operations are being implemented have various employment options, depending upon their seniority and union agreements that apply at their locations,” Faust said. “The recently ratified United Transportation Union contract provides generous financial protection for employees that otherwise would be furloughed as a result of RCL implementation.”
Briggs said some employees may be transferred to other rail yards.
Faust said the technology will only be used in the switching yards.