WARREN, Ohio — A state senator doesn’t want railroad locomotives operated on public routes in Ohio without those locomotives being staffed by qualified engineers, reports the Warren Tribune-Chronical.
That state Sen. Robert F. Hagan, D-Youngstown, is a card-carrying engineer himself and a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is just one of the reasons he’s introducing a bill in Columbus to outlaw remote-controlled operation of locomotives on public throughways.
”I’d introduce this bill if I wasn’t an engineer,” Hagan said Wednesday afternoon. Hagan faces Republican Holly Hanni in the Nov. 5 general election.
”We want the public to know that there is clearly a danger here,” Hagan said, standing at a rail crossing in Warren near WCI Steel off Pine Street N.E., pointing at a CSX locomotive in the yard. ”We want to protect our jobs, too,” he added.
David Hall, a spokesman for CSX, said the remote devices are just used in rail yards and not on trains that are traveling public routes.
Hall said the remote device allows a controller who is away from the train itself to move the train and eliminate possible human error in the rail yard. Hall said CSX began using the technology this year.
Hagan said the use of the remote-controlled locomotive at WCI is a first in the Mahoning Valley, and next week CSX will be using a remote-controlled locomotive serving General Motors Lordstown.
The remote systems are described in a recent National Mediation Board decision regarding railroad job classifications in Kansas. Remote-control technology consists of two parts: the radio transmitter carried by ground personnel and the computer on board the locomotive, the Aug. 14 decision states. The decision is posted on the Internet.
Personnel on the ground communicate the desired speed and direction of the train to the on-board computer and the computer does the rest, including controlling the throttle and the brake and adjusting for the weight of the train and the condition of the track, the decision states. Remote-control operators can manually override the computer, the decision states.
J.F. Ong, chairman and state legislative representative of the Ohio state legislative board for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said the remote-controlled locomotives have been popping up in Ohio.
”They’re traveling bombs,” Ong said.
Anthony Marrara, local chairman for the BLE and an engineer for BLE’s Division 411, said the BLE is not against the use of the technology. It just wants qualified, trained engineers operating the trains.
Ong and Hagan said their concern is the training the railroad employees who belong to the United Transportation Union receive before taking a locomotive out. They contend the training is not adequate.
Hagan’s bill, yet unnamed, would fine a railroad $10,000 for every day the remote control device is used on the locomotive that is using a public route. The bill would permit remote control devices to be used on locomotives operated on private property.
Hagan, who has been a train engineer for more than 30 years, said the remote devices don’t have a video backup and a train could hit a car and the railroad wouldn’t know it.
Marrara and Ong said CSX wants to replace 600 railroad engineers throughout the entire CSX system.
”The bottom line is this is not about remote control,” Ong said. ”This is about trying to get rid of our union.”