New York will now require Class I and II railroads operating in the state to have at least two crew members involved in running a freight train.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the state Senate bill addressing train crew size on Dec. 8. The bill calls for an amendment to the existing laws governing freight train movements to include language requiring a minimum of two people to operate a freight train. The bill goes into effect 30 days after being signed into law.
New York is the third state this year to sign a train crew size bill into law, behind Ohio and Kansas.
The rail unions representing locomotive engineers and train conductors applauded Hochul’s decision to sign the bill.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD) noted that Hochul had chosen to veto a similar bill in late 2022. The 2022 bill on train crew sizes passed both houses of the New York Legislature last year, but according to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), Hochel vetoed the bill over concerns about federal preemption.
“Something changed this year — perhaps it was seeing legislatures and governors in both Ohio and Minnesota to the west take the steps to pass legislation or the catastrophic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that happened in February,” SMART-TD said last Wednesday, referring to the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment. Local officials had vented tank cars containing vinyl chloride as a result of the February derailment, sending a large plume of smoke over the accident site.
BLET quoted Hochul as saying in her approval memo that “the horrific disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, highlighted the need for strong regulatory protections. … Federal action remains pending and state-level regulation is therefore necessary.”
The Federal Railroad Administration’s proposed rulemaking governing train crew sizes, which was introduced in July 2022, is still pending. Action on the proposed rule could take place in 2024. The issue has also been before the FRA for years, with the agency under former FRA Administrator Ron Batory withdrawing in May 2019 an earlier proposed rulemaking on train crew sizes.
Including New York, 11 states now have laws addressing train crew size, according to BLET: Kansas, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, Arizona, West Virginia, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada and Colorado.
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