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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has asked the United Transportation Union (UTU) to take a leadership role in helping the regulatory agency monitor the safety of remote control operations.
UTU has been pushing for increased FRA monitoring and made clear to the agency it has no objection to similar involvement by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE).
"When employee safety is at stake, every set of experienced eyes is needed and welcome," said UTU National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer. "We hope the other organization has learned an appropriate and valuable lesson from UTU efforts that working constructively with federal agencies delivers more for members than standing in the street shouting through bullhorns."
The FRA developed a one-page reporting form that can be used to inform the agency and its safety inspectors of suspected safety problems with remote control operations. The forms will be provided to UTU local officers and general chairpersons where remote control operations are in use.
Where problems are suspected, those witnessing the occurrence will be able to use the form to indicate a complete description of the event. Completed forms are to be sent to FRA regional offices closest to the location of the event described.
FRA issued recommended guidelines for remote control operations in February 2001. "Since issuing those guidelines, FRA has made a significant effort to ensure that its inspectors are well versed in the technical and operational issues related to the use of the various RCL devices," said FRA Associate Administrator George Gavalla in a letter to UTU International President Byron A. Boyd Jr.
Boyd has met frequently with Gavalla and FRA Administrator Allan Rutter to discuss remote control safety. Boyd also made a request of the Senate Commerce Committee that it instruct the FRA to perform an audit of the railroads' use of remote control locomotives and the effect of further implementation of this technology."
In September and in response to the Boyd request, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings, the committee's ranking Democrat, instructed Rutter to follow through on the UTU request. McCain and Hollings wrote Rutter that the committee understands that "train movements controlled remotely by operators (conductors) on the ground are generally safer because the operator has a better view of the area around the train movement than does an engineer in the cab of a locomotive."
The senators noted that some communities, "with only anecdotal information available," have passed resolutions to ban RCL operations within their communities ... (but) these local laws are preempted by federal law governing the safety of rail operations. A thorough safety audit" should resolve those concerns, wrote McCain and Hollings.
FRA was also instructed by the Commerce Committee -- again at the UTU's encouragement -- to include in its audit "an assessment of the impact of RCLs on safety, including a comparison of the rate of accidents, injuries and fatalities involving RCLs with similar operations involving manned locomotives. Additionally, the audit should assess the effects of remote control operations on the safety of highway-rail grade crossings, hazardous materials transportation, the safety of remote control locomotives operated in urban areas, any unique operating characteristics presented by RCLs, and an assessment of the safety benefits of such operations," wrote McCain and Hollings.
FRA was asked to provide a detailed report "within 18 months."
Boyd said of the UTU-initiated McCain-Hollings request to the FRA that "this demonstrates once again the benefits to a union and its members of working constructively within the system."
In 2002, UTU members overwhelmingly ratified a new agreement with most of the nation's railroads giving UTU members ownership and control of remote control operations along with unprecedented job security and a voice in setting minimum training standards and methods of implementation.