(The following article by Meena Thiruvengadam was posted on the San Antonio Express-News website on October 22.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Thanks to record Asian imports, high energy prices and a shortage of truckers, business is booming for American railroads.
Each day, between five and 15 trains make their way through the Union Pacific rail yard on San Antonio’s East Side, one of two bustling hubs the company operates here.
The trains carry coal, agricultural products and chemicals, such as the chlorine gas that leaked and killed three people on June 18, 2004, when a UP train derailed in Southwest Bexar County. A fourth person died later.
Last week’s UP derailment caused no fatalities, but it brought back to the forefront an issue with which San Antonio has grappled for decades. Although people don’t want train tracks running through their neighborhoods, they ultimately need the products being transported and benefit from the jobs created.
“The concern about trains going through neighborhoods is something we certainly do understand,” Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona said, “but at the same time, we provide a very important service for the community that we serve. We hope people will understand that.”
Rail is expected to become an increasingly important part of the local economy.
With Toyota’s South Side manufacturing center getting ready to produce trucks for sale next month, trains will bring in supplies and ship Tundras out of the state. Rail is crucial to San Antonio’s plans to become a global distribution center. And Union Pacific is planning a new $90 million cargo terminal in Southwest Bexar County in an area that is already a hub for the rail company’s $1 billion annual Mexico business.
“Rail is not only going to be critical to San Antonio and our development, it’s going to be critical to every community,” said Blake Hastings, executive director of Free Trade Alliance San Antonio, a group promoting international trade. “How we address it is going to be a success factor in the development of the economy.”
Demand for Union Pacific rail services is greater than it has been in more than 60 years.
In the past year, Union Pacific has added 1,000 people to work on its train, engine and yard operations nationwide. It is looking to hire about 70 employees in the San Antonio area alone.
Nationally, railroads are moving record volumes of goods with fewer employees. Railroad employment dropped 11 percent between 1994 and 2004 and now totals about 213,000, according to government statistics.
Railroads are replacing thousands of workers eligible to retire earlier than initially anticipated. The Railroad Retirement Board in 2002 gave workers with 30 years of service the option of retiring with full benefits at 60.
“We expect 40 percent of the work force will be retiring over the next several years,” Arbona said.
Railroads say they can do more with fewer people because they’re more efficient. That increased efficiency comes at a price, according to the United Transportation Union. The union says modern railroad efficiency is partly a function of working too few employees too hard and cutting too many corners.
Connie English, state legislative director for the United Transportation Union, describes railroading as a lifestyle in which seven-day, 70- to 80-hour workweeks — and 2 a.m. phone calls — are the norm.
“You get fatigued,” English said. “You’re still going to respond, but not as fast as you would if you were rested.”
Railroad workers are allowed by law to operate a train for a maximum of 12 hours a day with at least eight hours off between shifts. But they often have to spend additional paid time waiting onboard trains for transportation to terminals, stretching workdays longer. Because railroads operate 24 hours, employees can’t be guaranteed a consistent schedule.
The engineer at the helm of the Union Pacific train involved in 2004’s deadly Southwest Bexar County derailment worked 22 days in the prior month. Of those, half were longer than 14 hours and one totaled 22 hours including paid waiting time, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The engineer told investigators, “If you were to take a poll, most of the people at work are tired. I mean, you work so often, so many different shifts, your body really doesn’t recuperate.”
English said Union Pacific has since “cleaned up its act in San Antonio,” but he said problems with manpower shortages and inadequate training persist. In Tuesday’s accident, excessive braking rather than fatigue is thought to be the cause.
There was a time when railroads were thought to have too much capacity for new business and too many employees.
Railroads now have more business than they can handle, said Kendell Keith, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, a group whose members rely largely on rail and barges to get their products from America’s heartland to consumers around the world.
“There have been many situations where the carriers have either refused new business or asked existing customers to accept a reduced level of service,” he said in April during testimony to members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Hastings, of the Free Trade Alliance, thinks the solution to balancing the economy’s need for rail with public safety concerns lies in routing trains around population centers.
“You have to develop new rail infrastructure that allows trains to go around cities at a higher velocity than they can go through them,” he said. “In doing that, you address safety and security issues for those people whose houses are being invaded by rail cars and you address rail capacity issues by moving trains faster.”