(The La Crosse Tribune posted the following story by Joan Kent on its website on April 30.)
LA CROSSE, Wisc. — A La Crosse Common Council committee voted Tuesday to hold public hearings on whether to support use of remote controls on trains.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe is using the “portable locomotive control technology” on three switch engines at the yard in La Crosse.
A spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers told the Judiciary and Administration Committee that the system is dangerous and operated by people with much less training than railroad engineers. The switch engines are less than 300 feet from another railroad track, said James Kinsman of Rockland. “It’s just idiotic to think that they can run that close to another railroad where you have passenger trains and hazardous materials.”
But spokesmen for Burlington Northern Santa Fe said the system, consisting of hand-held controlled units worn by people on the ground and a mobile control unit on the locomotive, is safer than having an engineer in the cab of a switch engine.
Both Canadian railways have reported increased safety, and in the year Burlington Northern Santa Fe has used it, there has been a 42 percent reduction in accidents, said Brian J. Sweeney of St. Paul, legislative counsel and executive director, government affairs.
Kinsman said there have been 43 accidents involving the remote controls and at least four fatalities associated with the remote units nationally, but Sweeney said none of the fatalities have been attributed to the technology.
Kinsman also said the BLE fears that use of the remotes on switch yards is a foot in the door to using them on overland tracks. But railway spokesmen say they are not made for long distance use.
The BLE says the Federal Railroad Administration has not adequately regulated the remote controls. “We are asking cities and counties to send a resolution to the FRA to stop the use of these dangerous practices until it puts on regulations,” Kinsman said. “It should not be voluntary, rather than giving (railway companies) the option to do the right thing.”
Committee member Robert Slaback said he saw the equipment at the La Crosse yard and was impressed with it.
Committee member Audrey Kader moved to not hold public hearings after chairman Richard Becker said he could not recall any similar hearings. “I am concerned with us getting involved in a labor/management issue that is not our business, though of course safety is,” Kader said. But other members said they believe that they and the public need more information. Kader joined them in voting to hold the hearings, with Becker casting the lone vote against the motion.
The council’s Committee of the Whole will consider the proposal to hold public hearings Tuesday, May 6, and the council will consider it Thursday, May 8.