LINCOLN, Neb. — When it comes to using remote-control devices to move rail cars, the railroads and the locomotive engineers union don’t see eye to eye, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
The two biggest railroads in Nebraska — Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific — are gradually putting more of the remote control technology to use in rail yards, touting increased safety and efficiency.
However, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has been picketing nationwide and going to court to stop the devices from being used, saying they’re unsafe and will lead to job cuts.
About 120 members of the locomotive engineers union carried signs and marched in downtown Lincoln on Wednesday to protest the remote-control devices. The union members, most of whom work for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, congregated at Iron Horse Park in the downtown Haymarket area.
Union representatives said rail workers, who receive 80 hours of training in two weeks on the devices, are inadequately trained to operate rail cars. The union also is worried that engineers could lose their jobs.
Representatives for Burlington Northern and Union Pacific counter that rail workers are actually safer with the new technology. They say engineers won’t lose jobs; those no longer needed to work in transfer stations will be shifted to other jobs in the rail system.
U.P. spokesman John Bromley said the technology is designed to move rail cars in a rail yard, where workers can see the locomotive, not on long hauls.
The timing of the picket, said Roy Helm, local chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, coincides with Burlington Northern Santa Fe starting Sept. 29 to use remote-control devices at its Lincoln switching yard.
Locomotives equipped with remote-control devices are operated from a belt pack worn by a worker. The pack has buttons and controls that let the operator –typically a conductor or brakeman — run the rail cars at the yard from the ground. The devices do not have to be used by an engineer, who would have to board a locomotive cab to operate a rail car.
Remote-control train operations has been a contentious issue for the locomotive engineers, who filed a lawsuit May 15 to stop Omaha-based Union Pacific from using the devices. That lawsuit hasn’t been resolved.
Burlington Northern spokesman Steve Forsberg of Kansas City, Kan., said the Lincoln picket is typical of the union’s response when a switching yard starts using the technology.
Burlington Northern, Union Pacific and four other railroads in January filed a lawsuit blocking a possible union strike over the use of remote-control locomotives and said the dispute should be settled in arbitration. That lawsuit, too, remains unresolved.
The union said there are 900 locomotive engineers in Nebraska — about 220 of them working for the Burlington Northern.
Forsberg, of Burlington Northern, said the rail workers on the ground, who are most vulnerable to accidents, are safer when trains are operated by remote control.
He said accidents occur most due to human error, not technology. A rail worker on the ground using the device can control the rail cars, avoiding miscommunication with an engineer inside a locomotive cab.
Since late winter and spring, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern have begun using remote control technology in some rail yards.
Union Pacific uses the technology in Des Moines; Kansas City; Hinkle, Ore.; and the San Francisco area. The company eventually plans to use the remote control devices in all of its terminals, Bromley said. That could include those in Council Bluffs and North Platte, Neb.
Burlington Northern uses the technology in 16 terminals, and will add the technology in Alliance, Neb., and the Kansas City area next year.
Helm, of the union, said that Union Pacific’s North Platte rail yard both are scheduled for getting remote controls sometime in 2003 — of which Union Pacific’s Bromley could not confirm the date.
Helm, of the union, said that BNSF plans to eliminate 16 jobs in Lincoln by the end of the month and that a minimum of 60 jobs have been lost because of the remote-controlled devices.
Forsberg denied Helm’s assertion.
“I don’t know if Lincoln will have layoffs in the future, but (if they do) it won’t be because of portable locomotive control technology.”
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers spokesman John Bentley said from his Cleveland headquarters there were 21 accidents and zero deaths in the United States involving remote controlled operations from March 7 to September 24th. Of those accidents, 11 came from the Union Pacific and one came from the Burlington Northern, Bentley said.
BNSF’s Forsberg said the statistics are not accurate.
Union Pacific spokesman Bromley said that he know of nine accidents but none were the fault of the remote control technology.