(The Tullahoma News published the following story by Brian Justice on its website on September 4.)
TULLAHOMA, Tenn. — Although CSX Transportation Inc. says remote control trains are safe, safety advocates would beg to differ.
Some trains in Tennessee are being run by remote control in rail yards, sometimes crossing onto neighboring roads, which has led to questions about how safe the process is.
The new technology, used to sort cars to different tracks, enables a switchman on the ground to control the trains, with no engineer at the controls.
David Hall, CSX spokesman, said CSX uses the remote controls in 60 locations nationwide, but only in yards in Nashville and Erwin in Tennessee.
He said the process most likely would never be used in Tullahoma.
“I don’t believe it would,” he said. “I don’t see our efforts with remote control technology to have any impact in our operations at Tullahoma.”
Hall said remote control train use can greatly improve safety.
He provided information that refers to the Canadian National Railroad which has used the technology since 1989. The information says yard accidents have declined by 70 percent since remote systems were put in operation.
However, Mike Papula of Estill Springs, a citizen member of a newly revived Tennessee Department of Transportation task force on rail-crossing safety, said remote use in rail yards is not the main issue being questioned.
Papula said when rail cars are changed, sometimes they are moved across grade crossings, which could be hazardous depending on the circumstances.
Papula used Tullahoma as an example.
He said cars are changed on tracks in the Lincoln-North Atlantic Street area. He added they often have to be moved onto street crossing areas.
“A rail yard type operation can go through three or four different crossings,” Papula said, then referring to remote control trains. “That’s where it gets fuzzy – where can they operate and where can’t they operate?”
He said clearly defined operational procedures need to be developed for remote control trains so that they in no way infringe with safety at rail crossing areas.
Papula said railroad companies need to be limited specifically where they can and can’t use remote technology so the most ideal safety conditions can be achieved.
Dr. William Freeman and Maryellen Feaster, two parents of victims killed in train crossing accidents in the immediate area, agree remote control train technology needs to be questioned and scrutinized.
Freeman and Mrs. Feaster are members on the state’s Railroad Crossing Task Force which also includes Papula and Ken Heathington of Knoxville.
The 17-member panel continues to have representatives of railroad companies, cities and counties, and state and federal agencies.
Freeman’s son, John, was killed in April at a crossing in Normandy, the same location of another fatal crash in 2002.
Mrs. Feaster’s daughter, Hilary, was killed six years ago in Franklin County while driving home from having her graduation pictures taken at Tullahoma High School.
Freeman said he is not as familiar with the remote control train issue as Papula or Heathington are. However, he said, just based on common sense, the issue needs to be questioned.
“Electrical or mechanical systems can fail,” he said. “At least with an engineer, he can sound a horn and put on the brakes.”
Mrs. Feaster echoed Freeman’s comments.
“I share the same concern,” she said, referring to safety. “I think this definitely needs to be looked into.”
Mrs. Feaster said that often decisions are made to save money by reducing personnel numbers. However, she said that savings should never come at the expense of someone’s life.
“I think this definitely needs to be looked into,” she said. “My concern is a lot of decisions are made about money as opposed to safety.”
The issue has caught the attention of Tennessee Citizen Action, a consumer watchdog group that lobbies on Capitol Hill, and some state lawmakers, who have seen presentations on how technology is replacing locomotive engineers.
Papula, as a task force member, said he plans to bring up the issue at upcoming meetings.
Mike McCready of Dickson, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Tennessee, said eventually remote-controls could replace a lot of engineers on regular runs.
Hall said much of the concern about safety stems from labor union issues about engineers potentially losing their jobs.
CSX Transportation and the United Transportation Union, a competing union whose members include switchmen, said remotely directing trains has increased safety. Train accidents were reduced by more than 60 percent with remote-controlled engines in CSX yards, they said.
McCready disagreed.
He said remote-controlled locomotives were banned in Jackson after rail customers complained about them.
Hall said that’s not true. The terrain was too hilly in that area, he said, but CSX plans to give it another shot in another part of Jackson.
Under the conventional system, at least two railroad employees on the ground direct a locomotive engineer when they want to switch tracks or change rail cars.
Jerry Anderton, spokesman for the United Transportation Union in Tennessee, said with a remote control, one person does the job and it’s safer.