(The following report appeared at WorkDayMinnesota.org on October 13.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Locomotive Engineers’ long campaign against unmanned locomotives on freight trains has finally gotten congressional attention, with a Texas Democrat calling the remote-controlled locomotives a security threat.
In a bill introduced last month, Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas took aim at the railroads’ plans. His bill (H.R. 5119) bans unmanned locomotives on trains with hazardous materials.
“Hazardous materials transport requires security,” Green wrote colleagues. Removing engineers “eliminates the last line of defense,” he said.
“While not widely known, remote control locomotives operate outside of rail yards hauling hazardous materials like chlorine and petrochemicals. Vulnerability to hijacking and/or sabotage only increases without a human onboard presence…A security breach could be devastating to areas of dense population.”
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has campaigned for years against the freight railroads, who convinced the Bush-appointed Federal Railroad Administration to permit unmanned locomotives in rail yards.
But the railroads defined “yards” generously, and accidents –including fatal accidents–involving the unmanned locomotives have been reported on main freight lines as well. The latest accident, in mid-September, spilled hazardous materials from an unmanned-locomotive train in East St. Louis, Ill., forcing 140 people to evacuate their homes, BLE said.
Green’s bill would bar the railroads from operating remote-controlled locomotives unless the roads can prove they are safe to operate. Violators would be punished by fines of $5,000-$50,000 per violation per day, plus five years in jail. If a remote-controlled locomotive leading a train with hazardous materials causes a fatal accident, or one that produces bodily injury, the jail term would double.
Harkening back to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Green noted the federal government moved against such future attacks by arming pilots and hardening cockpit doors.
“Hazmat trains with remote-controlled locomotives are potentially much greater risks than manned hazardous material trains. I am introducing precautionary legislation to secure remote control trains and prohibit hazmat cargoes,” he said.