CLEVELAND, July 9 — BLE International President Don M. Hahs is scheduled to testify tomorrow at a hearing on railroad safety before the Senate’s Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee.
The BLE President will address a variety of safety issues of importance to BLE members and to affiliates of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. The Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Other panelists include Marion C. Blakey, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board; Allan Rutter, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration; David Gunn, president and CEO of Amtrak; and Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.
Hahs will discuss employee fatigue as it relates to rail safety, and will propose a 21st Century solution to the age-old problem of fatigue. Among other items, he will also discuss inadequate staffing levels among the ranks of track inspectors, signal maintainers, and maintenance of way employees, and how this has caused an increase in the number of track-caused train derailments.
BLE members can listen to a live webcast of the hearing at the following website:
http://capitolhearings.org.