Rail union representatives are poised to adopt a policy statement that urges Congress to pass a rail safety bill — one which mandates a minimum of two-person crew sizes on all passenger and freight trains, regulates train lengths exceeding 7,500 feet and ensures adequate inspections of rail cars, locomotives and brakes.
The most recent policy statement of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO cites no less than 18 areas where regulations and guidance via the Federal Railroad Administration can bolster existing rail safety practices. TTD expects to formally adopt the statement at its spring summit on Wednesday, when 37 unions, including all U.S. rail labor unions, are convening at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington.
“The scope and ambition of laws from Congress must reflect the scope of the issue. Rail employees witness the results of their employers’ total disregard for safety each day on the job,” TTD said within the statement.
Besides addressing key union priorities on train crews, train length and inspection times, the policy statement calls for regulations for defect detection technologies that will cover testing, maintenance, repair, data tracking and crew alerts; provisions that will be sure that rail employees can call a security stand-down when employees deem conditions as unsafe; assurances that the railroads are providing visual warning equipment to watchmen and lookouts; and plans to immediate phase out FRA-granted safety waivers to Class I railroads. The protection waivers have been a degree of contention for the unions, which say the waivers have been used to pit technological tools against employees’ responsibilities.
TTD said the policy statement reflects practices that would lessen or further prevent train derailments, including those reminiscent of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which involved the controlled release of vinyl chloride from punctured tank cars, causing concern amongst local residents in regards to the derailment’s environmental impacts.
The policy statement comes as just last week the Senate Commerce Committee voted to bring a rail safety bill co-sponsored by Ohio’s two senators to the ground for a vote. The bill, which was authored by a bipartisan group of senators, was passed by a committee vote that fell mostly along party lines.
During a markup of the bill on the committee meeting last week, senators noted the input from rail stakeholders and the rail industry on crafting the bill.
But TTD asserts that the rail safety provisions that the freight rail industry has lobbied for in congressional rail safety laws don’t go far enough in supporting rail safety.
“Rail employees have sounded the alarm for years in regards to the deteriorating safety conditions within the freight rail industry. Actions taken by the Class I freight railroads each before and after the derailment show that they still have little interest in correcting their business practices that put lives and communities in danger each day,” TTD said. “Sadly, that’s because they’re driven by one thing, and one thing only: generating probably the most profit possible, no matter anyone’s wellbeing but their very own. It doesn’t matter to them who gets hurt in the method.”
The group also reiterated its argument that precision scheduled railroading (PSR), an operating tool that seeks to streamline railroad operations, contributed to the railroads’ relaxing of rail safety procedures.
“TTD has previously highlighted the harmful effects of the PSR operating model and the workforce and infrastructure cuts the railroads have made in recent times,” TTD said. “Absent federal motion, rail corporations will keep selecting Wall Street over Primary Street and rail safety will further deteriorate. If Congress doesn’t take motion and require the railroads to alter their ways, there’ll only be more derailments like East Palestine and more traumatized communities across the country. We cannot afford to attend any longer. Congress must take heed to the rail employees who see the security problems which are happening each day. Congress must act and pass a comprehensive rail safety bill that makes meaningful safety improvements before further disasters occur.”
To assist push the bill along, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who lent her support to the bill’s passage on the committee stage, said late Tuesday that she can be holding a press conference on the Hill on Wednesday afternoon with mayors affiliated with the National League of Cities to champion the bill within the Senate.
“With 140,000 miles of track within the U.S. crossing directly through 1000’s of cities, towns and villages, the severity of this derailment requires proactive reflection on rail safety actions that Congress can take now,” Cantwell said within the announcement.
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