MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Local engineers think CSX Transportation officials are headed down the wrong track by not using locomotive engineers to expand the use of remote controlled locomotives, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
That’s the message the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers tried to get across to company officials Tuesday as a train carrying CSX officers stopped briefly at Union Station in downtown Montgomery.
Union members hung banners and carried signs promoting the safety record of engineers as a “positive” approach to persuade the company to come to the negotiating table over the increasing use of remote control locomotives in switching yards.
That move toward new technology is moving engineers out of work and creating potential safety hazards, union officials said.
“They’re running locomotives without anybody on it,” said Bud Owen, secretary and treasurer of the local union. “They’re going to take away nearly every job we’ve got in Montgomery.”
CSX spokeswoman Susan Keegan, however, said the arrival of remote control locomotives does not mean the departure of engineers. In fact, Keegan said, the company plans to hire 467 new engineers later this year even as the use of remote controlled locomotives becomes more widespread.
“We need our engineers,” she said.
The CSX switching yards at the north ends of Louisville and Court streets in Montgomery are among the 100 pilot programs around the country in which the company is employing remote control locomotives. Other rail companies are doing the same, Keegan said.
The technology is similar to that used in remote control airplanes or cars. Rather than an engineer at the throttle, the locomotives are maneuvered around the switching yard by someone on the ground with a remote control device. The use of remote control trains is confined to switching yards, meaning that they can’t travel across public railroad crossings, Keegan said.
Of Montgomery’s 150 CSX engineers, 22 work in the switching yards, said Marion Patrick, the union’s local president. Two engineers already have been replaced by the technology and four more are scheduled to be replaced next week, Patrick said.
Keegan said 1,400 CSX engineers across the country have been “furloughed” during the transition to the new technology, but those engineers will be called back to work in May.
Remote operators receive two weeks of training before they become certified for the job, Keegan said. Engineers, by comparison, undergo training for a year before they are certified, Patrick said.
“It won’t be as safe because the people won’t be well-trained enough to operate them safely,” Patrick said.
Owen said that private industries that use remote control technology such as coal mines and paper mills have seen their accidents increase from the days when engineers controlled the locomotives.
Keegan said, however, that rail companies in Canada have been using remote controlled locomotives in switching yards for 20 years and seen the number of accidents drop by 56 percent.
“We’re rolling forth with technology that’s been tested for 20 years and proven safe,” she said. “If it was unsafe, I don’t think you’d see our senior leadership embrace it. We’re obsessed with safety.”