(Nampa television station KCBI posted the following story by Mike Keckler on its website on July 21.)
NAMPA, Idaho — Nampa’s switching yards are a busy place. Trains roll in, are backed up, taken apart and reassembled. A process coordinated by a switchman on the ground, talking by radio to the locomotive engineers. But after the first of the year, the yard locomotives will be unmanned — operated instead by remote control.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers says it is a dangerous prospect. “There is a public safety issue because we handle a great deal of hazardous shipments,” says Chairman Steve Brumbaugh of the Brotherhood’s Idaho State Legislative Board.
Brumbaugh says fewer than a dozen jobs will be lost in Nampa and Pocatello. Union members, he says are most concerned about proper training for those operating the remote controlled locomotives. “We have not been looking to stop the technology, we just want to insure that it is being properly implemented,” he says.
The Union Pacific Railroad is concerned about switch yard safety too. The company says it will actually improve. “Generally speaking, where we’ve implemented portable control locomotives, the accident rate in switching yards has dropped by 30%,” says Union Pacific Spokesman John Bromley. “Part of the reason for that is it eliminates the chance for miscommunication between the engineer and the switchman who is doing the work.”
Bromley says the remote controlled locomotives will be outfitted with fail-safe mechanisms designed to prevent runaways. But Brumbaugh says an experienced hand should be in the cab or handling the remote when moving such tonnage. The two sides disagree on how much experience should be required to run a switch yard locomotive by remote control. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers believes there should be strict safety regulations, not just non-binding guidelines which they say are currently in effect. Union Pacific says the remote operators will receive 88 hours of instruction before assuming control of a locomotive – a plan approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Bromley says trains operating on the main lines will continue to be manned.