KENNEWICK, Wash. — Remote-control trains aren’t child’s play for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, according to the Tri-Cities Herald.
Members of the union demonstrated Tuesday in Kennewick against what they say is the unsafe use of remote-control systems to operate locomotives in railroad switching yards.
Canadian railroads have been using the technology, by which an operator controls a locomotive via a radio control unit, for about 10 years. Now U.S. railroads are joining in, replacing engineers with less-experienced remote-control operators.
Union Pacific’s Hinkle rail yard in Hermiston started using remote control this year. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. rail yard in Pasco expects to use it at some point, said spokesman Gus Melonas.
Canadian National Railway Co. reduced yard mishaps by 56 percent over five years using the technology, said Frank Trotter, president and chief executive of CANAC Inc., manufacturer of a widely used remote-control device.
But members of the 59,000-strong Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers disagree that the technology is safe.
Since April, there have been four accidents at the Hinkle yard because of remote control, BLE representative Tim Donnigan said. Once, a locomotive was knocked on its side by a remote-controlled train.
“If there was an engineer at the controls, none of those mishaps would have occurred,” Donnigan said.
A Union Pacific database showed no accidents at the Hinkle yard caused by the technology, said spokesman Mike Furtney. He said only a few accidents have happened in the yards where it is being used, most because of operator error.
BLE union members say that proves experienced engineers should operate the remote controls.
Union engineers go through a six-month apprenticeship and are certified through the Federal Railways Administration, Donnigan said.
The remote-control operators get 48 hours of classroom training and 40 hours of on-the-job training, Furtney said.
“The average yard engineer, most of them out there have 20 to 25 years experience. You’re replacing that with, maximum, two weeks” experience, Donnigan said.
Jobs are another issue. No engineers have been fired after being replaced by remote control but have been reassigned, Furtney said.
About 40 engineers have been reassigned at the three BNSF yards where remote control now is used, BLE representative Dennis Pierce said.
Will Amaya, 29, has worked as a locomotive engineer at the Pasco rail yard since 1996. When the yard switches to remote control, he said, “my job will be eliminated, and I will have to relocate to continue to work as an engineer.”
The Federal Railroad Administration allowed the use of remote control by major U.S. railroad companies early this year.
In January, the BLE was blocked by a federal judge from striking over the issue. Since then, the union has filed two lawsuits to stop the technology’s spread until safety issues are resolved.
From January 2001 to April 2002, the Federal Railroad Administration had five reports of accidents involving remote-control technology, with no injuries or fatalities, said spokesman Warren Flatau.