(The following story by Herb Meeker appeared on the Journal Gazette website on April 20. Ed Way is Chairman of the BLET’s Illinois State Legislative Board.)
MATTOON, Ill. — A locomotive running down the tracks without an engineer in the cab used to be a runaway train.
Today, a locomotive driven by someone outside the engine cab is a run-of-the-mill operation in some railroad yards, including Mattoon. One spokesman with the Federal Railroad Administration believes there is no reason to pull the brakes on these operations, based on the current statistics for railway accidents.
But some railroad employees claim Remote Control Locomotive (RCL) operations are making the tracks unsafe for everyone. And the number of accidents on the nation’s tracks will increase unless these operations are stopped or restricted to the management of well-trained personnel, the employees say. This is especially true as plans are under way to expand remote control technology outside the train yard to main track operations, they say.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, RCL operations have been in use in this country for a number of years. The technology uses a radio transmitter and receiver system that can be operated by a person not physically located at the controls in the locomotive cab. Many times, the RCL operator carries the controls on a belt strapped to the waist.
The process is designed to be fail-safe where the locomotive comes to a stop automatically when communication transmissions are lost between the operator’s control pack and locomotive. In the United States, this technology has been confined largely to rail yard operations. Recently, however, each of the largest railroads as well as regional railroads in the country have begun implementing RCL operations on a wider scale.
Ed Way, a member of the Safety Task Force of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said many Mattoon residents probably don’t know locomotives have been operated without engineers within the Mattoon rail yard. In some cases, freight cars with hazardous or volatile materials might be moved across the yard with this technology.
Steven Bergfeld, legislative representative for Division 577 of the locomotive engineers union, said there is another safety hazard involving young people crossing the train yard while switching operations are in progress. Bergfeld is a Mattoon resident working in the local Canadian National yard.
Bergfeld added training for some RCL operators is not adequate. Sometimes, it is measured only by hours, which increases the risk for accidents.
Way and Bergfeld provided information to the Mattoon City Council earlier this month on the issue. They asked the council to consider a resolution to restrict RCL operations for cars carrying hazardous materials and for trains using rail crossings. In addition, the resolution would call for notice to city officials on RCL movements and also restrict access to the rail yard when these operations are completed.
Because the technology is not widely used in U.S. railroad operations, FRA has limited data on which to base an objective safety. FRA does recognize these operations have existed in Canada for several years and appear to have a credible safety record.
As these operations expand, some of the traditional ways of conducting rail movements will be significantly modified. Under such circumstances, safety risk factors may change, according to the FRA.
FRA issued a Notice of Safety Advisory, published in the Federal Register Feb. 14, 2001. The current safety advisory was developed for yard-switching operations only. With recent labor contract negotiations and rulings, however, RCL operations may expand from yard-switching to main-track “train” operations. If this occurs, FRA will re-evaluate its policy on these operations. As with all aspects of railroad operations, FRA will monitor RCL operations closely and, if need be, will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure safety, Flatau explained.
“Nothing has occurred that would lead FRA to limit or prohibit this technology,” said Warren Flatau, a spokesman with the FRA office in Washington D.C. He added FRA has audited the training programs for RCL operators, and a report on that and other data will be provided to a congressional committee in coming months.
Flatau said that RCL operations can cross over railroad crossings, or involve rail cars carrying hazardous materials.
“Locomotives will still be required to sound their horns and follow existing regulations for conventional rail operations,” Flatau said.
A spokesman for Canadian National Railroad returned a call on this story, but referred the questions to another railroad official available at press time.
Way said the current situation is unsafe and action must be considered by communities where trains are not always using engineers. Bergfeld said in one case an RCL operator did not see where a train down South was headed and that led to a train crashing repeatedly into a freight car.
Flatau said there is no data present to prove RCL have caused more rail accidents. The best answer for now is to closely monitor RCL operations in the future, he said.