(The following article by Patrick Driscoll was posted on the San Antonio Express-News website on November 11.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — While Bexar County officials are trying to figure out how to make train traffic safer in San Antonio, Union Pacific is asking the Federal Railroad Administration for some waivers on safety inspections.
UP says it would be cheaper and save time to allow trains inspected by Mexican workers in Nuevo Laredo to cross the border without additional inspections in Laredo — and all of those trains, an average of eight a day, would rumble through San Antonio.
“We’re convinced it’ll be safe to do it,” UP spokesman John Bromley said.
But UP hasn’t swayed jittery officials in San Antonio, where several train wrecks this year have killed or injured people and spilled toxic materials. Local leaders now are pressuring UP to step up safety and reroute non-local freight traffic out of the inner city.
On the same day that the city experienced its latest deadly rail accident, U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez said that asking for exemptions on safety inspections flies in the face of such efforts.
“I found it curious, or strange, that Union Pacific would make a request of this nature,” said Gonzalez, D-San Antonio. “It just doesn’t make any real sense.”
UP says it could save more than $2 million a year by not having to inspect trains it picks up from Nuevo Laredo.
Officials say the Mexican company Transportación Ferroviaia Mexicana examines them just 9 miles away, using standards that match U.S. regulations.
The inspections cover air brakes and mechanical parts such as wheels, axles and car bodies.
“Mexican railroads are very professional. We think that they’ll do a fine job,” Bromley said. “It’s just inefficient to do it on both sides of the river.”
Transportación Ferroviaia Mexicana is willing to let U.S. officials inspect its operations and access records, but critics charge there would be no legal jurisdiction to fix problems or issue fines.
With UP parking trains that block up to 32 road crossings as long as seven hours a day in Laredo, city officials there are eager for the railroad agency to grant the inspection waivers.
Amid the shock of Wednesday’s train crash, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff asked UP to cease local operations for a day so that management can focus on stressing safety. UP refused.