(The following article by Dean Brickey was posted on the East Oregonian website on January 18.)
HERMISTON — Unless the government changes its recommendations, remote-control trains are prohibited between Hinkle and Umatilla.
Union Pacific Railroad has notified the city it wants to operate remote-controlled trains through Hermiston. The city subsequently adopted a resolution banning remote-control operations. The railroad, however, continues to pursue its plan.
Warren Flatau, Federal Railroad Administration spokesman in Washington, D.C., said a Sept. 5, 2005, letter from Daniel C. Smith, FRA associate administrator for safety, spells out the government’s latest opinion about remote-control operations. Smith wrote the letter to the presidents of two associations that represent U.S. railroads.
Hermiston City Manager Ed Brookshier believes one of the FRA’s four recommendations in that letter would stop the UP on its tracks. That recommendation prohibits remote-control operations on any grade greater than one-half percent for more than one-quarter mile.
While the Union Pacific tracks are relatively flat as they pass through Hermiston, Brookshier said there is a considerable grade as the tracks approach the Port of Umatilla.
“The track basically parallels the Old River Road until you get down to Umatilla,” Brookshier said. “Then it climbs to the Port of Umatilla’s industrial area. … The distance involved is in excess of one mile and the grade is three percent.”
Even though that recommendation would appear to put a brake on the railroad’s plan, the FRA is leaving the door open for Union Pacific.
Flatau said the railroad must file an amendment to its remote-control operations training program before it can expand remote operations at Hinkle.
The railroad filed four years ago to provide training that addresses remote-control yard switching only.
“The amendment they will be filing will specifically address training for RCO movements outside of yards,” Flatau said. “Union Pacific will not be allowed to implement this job until FRA approves additional training.”
Mark Davis, a Union Pacific spokesman in Omaha, said UP has completed its review of remote-control operations through Hermiston and has submitted a training plan to the FRA.
Flatau said Wednesday Union Pacific provided the FRA a draft plan and agency officials offered the railroad guidance about revising it.
“They have not submitted their formal training plan,” he said.
Flatau said FRA specialists have been working with Union Pacific and with representatives of the United Transportation Union.
“My understanding is that these (remote-control) jobs are going to be handled by UTU members, rather than BLE,” Flatau said, referring to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union that represents the engineers who normally operate locomotives.
The UTU represents various crafts, he said, including brakemen-conductors.
“It is not our intention to see RCOs (remote-control operations) expand well beyond yard limits,” Flatau said. “The FRA wants to be satisfied that the operators not only have sufficient training, but that we feel that it is, in fact, adequate.”
He said the agency will approach expanding remote-control operations cautiously, but there is “no legitimate or objective basis for us to ban them.”
Representatives of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., say the elected officials intend to send letters to the FRA on Hermiston’s behalf.
Geoff Stuckart, a Wyden spokesman, said Wednesday his office is concerned about potential safety issues.
Andrew Whelan, a Walden spokesman, said his boss will team up with Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who is on the House Transportation Committee, to write a letter asking, “Is this idea really safe, is it proven?”
Brookshier hopes also they will discuss his main concern about the railroad’s plan and the FRA’s recommendations. Neither has addressed remote-control operations in an urban environment where railroad tracks cross city streets, he said.