Rail union groups are lending support to federal officials’ calls to reform rail safety but say even more steps can be taken to implement and bolster safe practices.
Railroad Workers United (RWU), an interunion group consisting of craft employees, said the Railway Safety Act proposed by a bipartisan group of five senators last week is a good first step by calling for restrictions on train length and weight, train crew staffing minimums, the regulation of wayside detectors and restrictions on the movement of hazardous materials.
But the legislation doesn’t address what the group says are other pertinent issues, such as proper training standards, adequate staffing levels for both operating and nonoperating crafts, adequate sick leave provisions, and predictable and defined work and rest periods.
RWU on Monday contended that the issues not addressed in the bill instead will be taken up by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, which may not handle them thoroughly because these agencies are administered and staffed by former railroad management and thus “have a history of subverting rail safety, issuing waivers, and all too often serve the rail industry’s agenda,” according to RWU General Secretary Jason Doering.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win major safety improvements to the rail industry in the U.S.,” said Matt Weaver, RWU steering committee member. “While the Railway Safety Act of 2023 has potential, railroad workers are concerned with what is glaringly left out of the bill and what aspects are left to the DOT and FRA to draft, implement, and administer.”
RWU passed a resolution Tuesday that calls on regulators to set temporary maximum train lengths as well as establish permanent train length regulations within a reasonable time. The group also called for trains carrying hazardous materials and regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to be equipped with electronic pneumatic brakes.
These two measures would help guard against any physical impacts that longer trains might have on track infrastructure, according to RWU.
“Whereas rail carriers have consistently over the years increased the size of trains while disregarding the limitations of technology and infrastructure largely unimproved for decades; and whereas longer, heavier trains create much higher buff and draft forces during, what would otherwise be a minor derailment event, which can then lead to a major catastrophic event … Therefore be it Resolved, that RWU demands that railroad safety regulators act immediately to set temporary maximum safe train lengths, that account for dangerous slack events occurring during a derailment, as well as to significantly reduce such incidents,” the group said.
RWU isn’t the only group to have a split response over the rail safety bill in the Senate. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said the bill’s language on train crew sizes and requiring train crews of at least two people has potential loopholes, such as the regulation applying only to long-distance freight trains.
“If the language is not precise, the Class I railroads will avoid the scope of the law without violating the law, yet again putting the safety of our members and American communities into harm’s way,” BLET National President Eddie Hall said in a Friday news release. “You can run a freight train through the loopholes.”
Meanwhile, SMART Transportation Division said March 1, just after the introduction of the Railway Safety Act, that the bill is a step in the right direction.
“The provisions in this act add up to the end of the era of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) and attempt to take back control of our nation’s supply chain from Wall Street’s ‘profit at any cost’ mentality. It offers a chance for the nation to make the giant rail corporations take rational measures to get the industry to do what it’s designed to do — move freight through our nation safely and efficiently and be an example for the rest of the world to model,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said.
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