(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Alan Zibel on February 14.)
WASHINGTON — The government’s top railroad official on Wednesday said that in order to reduce the number of train accidents, his agency needs new authority over workers’ schedules, particularly the amount of time crews must rest between shifts.
But any change could pose problems for the railroad industry, which might end up having to hire more workers at a time when it is already struggling to maintain adequate staffing levels. Unions are also uneasy about possible changes to rules that they say have protected workers for decades.
On Wednesday Joseph Boardman, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, asked Congress to repeal a 100-year-old law that regulates workers’ schedules, saying it is hazardous to public safety. Boardman wants to replace the antiquated rules with new ones set by his department that could call for more rest between shifts or shorter work days.
The existing “hours of service” laws, Boardman said in a conference call Wednesday, don’t allow regulators “to apply the scientifically based knowledge that’s out there today” about the impact of a lack of sleep on workers. Boardman said any reforms would be developed jointly by his agency, railroad companies and labor unions.
“Railroads are amenable to a careful examination” of the issue, said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, a trade group that represents CSX Corp., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and others.
Under the industry’s hours of service laws, train crews and signal workers can work 12 hours straight with 10 hours of rest. But if train employees work one minute less than 12 hours, the law only mandates eight hours of rest.
James Brunkenhoefer, national legislative director of the United Transportation Union, told a House committee Tuesday that the union supports giving the railroad administration jurisdiction over workers’ fatigue.
But, he said in prepared testimony, existing legal protections should not be repealed because “railroad workers fought very hard over the years to obtain” those protections.
The National Transportation Safety Board also supports giving railroad officials authority to determine rules on fatigue.
The safety board’s chairman, Mark V. Rosenker, testified in Congress on Tuesday that fatigue has been a probable cause of 16 major train accidents over the past 23 years, according to a written copy of his remarks.
Last summer, the NTSB found that the crew of a Union Pacific freight train probably was asleep when it collided with a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train in Texas. That accident, on June 28, 2004 near San Antonio killed three people and injured 30.
Shares of Burlington Northern rose $3.05 to close at $83.65 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of CSX Corp. rose $2.73 to $42.10. Shares of Union Pacific Corp. closed $1.68 higher at $104.49 on the NYSE, where shares of Norfolk Southern Corp. ended up $1.84 to $52.25.