(The following article by Elizabeth Allen was posted on the San Antonio Express-News website on November 11.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — For weeks, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, Mayor Ed Garza and other local leaders had planned a Washington trip to lobby for tougher rail safety standards.
But after Wednesday’s fatal railroad incident Wolff decided not to wait for a face-to-face meeting.
He fired off letters to San Antonio’s congressional delegation and to Union Pacific’s president.
“Here we are, just a few days before we leave, and another one occurs,” he said after visiting the site. “It adds a lot more urgency to it.”
Wolff’s letter to UP President Jim Young asked him to order a 24-hour suspension of San Antonio operations so rail managers can meet with crews on safety issues.
Wolff also asked Young to send extra managers to San Antonio to beef up safety instruction and oversight.
“I understand that the fiscal and operational costs associated with a 24-hour stand down will be substantial,” Wolff wrote. “However, this cannot begin to compare with the cost to our community in lost lives.”
Wolff pointed to Toyota’s two-day halt of construction work on its San Antonio site in September to emphasize safety after an increase in on-site accidents.
Young replied in a phone message that the company wouldn’t halt rail traffic for 24 hours because it would be too costly and back up traffic, Wolff said later.
Young said UP would send more senior managers, implement a “safety blitz,” and slow the flow of traffic.
“We’re going to talk some more” today, Wolff said.
Wolff said he asked for more senior managers because it seems the derailments have been caused by employee errors.
In letters to congressional representatives, Wolff noted a recent New York Times article outlining a friendly relationship between federal regulators and railroad officials.
He and the others will meet Tuesday morning with the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, and the San Antonio congressional delegation in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office, said Hutchison spokesman Kevin Schweers.
Hutchison issued a news release Wednesday calling for “a top-to-bottom review of San Antonio’s railroad corridor.”
However, some things could be handled by the railroad right now, said Seth Mitchell, Wolff’s chief of staff.
Mitchell worked for Southern Pacific, a train company later absorbed by Union Pacific, from 1978 to 1984.
“If I had been responsible for six derailments in six months, I would be out of a job,” he said.
Councilman Richard Perez said he just wants to know why the tragedies keep occurring — most of them in his district.