Category Archives: Train crew size

Ammonia, Bakken Crude, California Regulation, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Ethanol, Liquid natural gas, Public Health, Public Safety, Train crew size

Rail Safety bill passes off California Senate Floor with bipartisan support

Press Release from California Senator Lois Wolk

Rail Safety bill passes off Senate Floor with bipartisan support

Bill requires minimum two–person train crews

5/11/2015 12:21 PM

SACRAMENTO—Legislation by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to protect communities along rail lines by requiring trains and light engines carrying freight within California to be operated with an adequate crew size for public safety reasons secured passage from the Senate last Thursday on a bipartisan 23-11 vote.

“Today’s freight trains carry extremely dangerous materials, including Bakken crude oil, ethanol, anhydrous ammonia, liquefied petroleum gas, and acids that may pose significant health and safety risks to communities and our environment in the case of an accident,” said Wolk. “With more than 5,000 miles of railroad track that crisscrosses the state through wilderness and urban areas, the potential for derailment or other accidents containing these materials is an ever present danger.”

SB 730 prohibits a freight train or light engine in California from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals.   It also authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission to assess civil penalties, at its discretion, against anyone who willfully violates this prohibition.

The California Public Utilities Commission supports SB 730, stating that requiring two-person crews is a straightforward way of ensuring two qualified crew members continue to operate freight trains in California.  According to the Commission, of all the industries subject to their oversight — energy, water, telecommunications, and transportation –rail accidents result in the greatest number of fatalities each year.

“Senator Wolk’s legislation helps keep us at the forefront of rail safety, ” said Paul King, Deputy Director of the Office of Rail Safety for the California Public Utilities Commission. “Senator Wolk’s bill would ensure that freight trains continue to have the safety redundancy that a second person provides. Such redundancy is a fundamental safety principle that is evidenced in certain industries, such as using two pilots in an airplane cockpit, or requiring back-up cooling systems for nuclear reactors.”

SB 730 will be heard next in the Assembly sometime in June.

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Rail Safety, Railroad workers, Train crew size

Rail Safety bill passes out of California Senate Committee

From an email Press Release…
[Editor:  To read and track the bill, see LegTrak at http://www.legtrack.com/bill.html?bill=201520160SB730.  – RS]

Rail Safety bill passes out of Senate Committee

Bill requires minimum two–person train crews
April 23, 2015, Contact: Monica Schmalenberger, (916) 651-4003

SACRAMENTO—Legislation authored by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to protect communities along rail lines by requiring a safe crew size for trains operating within California secured passage from the Senate Labor Committee yesterday on a 4-1 vote.

“Today’s freight trains carry extremely dangerous materials, including Bakken crude oil, pesticides and rocket fuel that may pose significant health and safety risks to communities and our environment in the case of an accident,” said Wolk. “With over 6000 miles of railroad track that crisscrosses the state through wilderness and urban areas, the potential for derailment or other accidents containing these materials is an ever present danger.”

SB 730 prohibits a train or light engine hauling freight in California from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 people.   It also authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission to assess civil penalties against anyone who willfully violates this prohibition.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously last week to support SB 730, stating that requiring two-person crews is a straightforward way of ensuring two qualified crew members continue to operate freight trains in California until such time as the rules and practices of safe operation may be updated for safer operation with smaller crews.  According to the Commission, of all the industries subject to their oversight — energy, water, telecommunications, and transportation — rail accidents result in the greatest number of fatalities each year.

“SB 730 is a great step toward enhancing safety and security on our state’s rail system by requiring two operating crew members to be on board each freight train and light engine,” said Timothy Smith, State Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, the sponsor of SB 730,  “This is very similar to the necessity of having a pilot and co-pilot on every airliner.  The people of this great state demand this type of check and balance for the sake of rail safety and rail security for themselves and our environment.  If SB 730 becomes law, the railroad industry will move one major step closer to ensuring that those goals are realized.”

SB 730 will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Bakken Crude, Bay Area, Benicia CA, Blast zone, Cleanup funding, Crude By Rail, Emergency Readiness & Response, Explosion, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Fire, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Oil spill, Schools, Tank car design, Train crew size, Valero Benicia Refinery

KPIX: State Senator Says Bay Area Not Prepared For Crude Oil Trains

Repost from 5KPIX TV CBS SF Bay Area
[Editor: apologies for the video’s commercial ad.  You can pass on choosing an ad – the video will begin if you just wait.  – RS]

State Senator Says Bay Area Not Prepared For Crude Oil Trains

Phil Matier talks with state senator Jerry Hill who believes that Bay Area emergency crews are not properly prepared to handle the hundreds of tanker trains bringing shale crude oil from the Dakotas to local refineries. (11/23/14)

BNSF Railway, Train crew size

Rail Workers Vote Down Single-Person Crews

Repost from The Republic, Columbus, Indiana
[Editor: For previous story, 7/29/14, see here.]

Railroad union rejects contract with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews

By JOSH FUNK  AP Business Writer, September 11, 2014
PHOTO: FILE - In this May 5, 2009 file photo, Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotives are parked in a rail yard in Lincoln, Neb. A unit of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews under certain circumstances. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
FILE – In this May 5, 2009 file photo, Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotives are parked in a rail yard in Lincoln, Neb. A unit of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews under certain circumstances. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

OMAHA, Nebraska — A railroad union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews on as much as 60 percent of its tracks.

The Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union voted against the contract this week, according to a notice sent to members late Wednesday.

The deal would have allowed BNSF to use one-person crews on tracks where a system capable of stopping the train remotely had been installed. But trains that carry hazardous materials, such as crude oil and chemicals, would have continued to have two-person crews.

BNSF operates tracks in 28 states in the western U.S. and two Canadian provinces. The railroad, based in Fort Worth, Texas, said it has Positive Train Control systems installed on about 60 percent of its 32,500 miles of track.

Major U.S. railroads have been steadily reducing the size of train crews for decades to reduce costs and take advantage of technological advances that reduce the need for crew members. Agreements requiring two-person crews have been in place for nearly 30 years.

BNSF and supporters of its proposal had argued that the implementation of Positive Train Control makes it unnecessary to have a second person in the cab of every locomotive. BNSF Vice President of Labor Relations John Fleps said the railroad will honor the union’s wishes.

“They have decided not to move forward at this time, and we respect the process,” Fleps said.

PHOTO: FILE - In this May 5, 2009 file photo, Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotives are parked in a rail yard in Lincoln, Neb. A unit of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews under certain circumstances. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

FILE – In this May 5, 2009 file photo, Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotives are parked in a rail yard in Lincoln, Neb. A unit of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews under certain circumstances. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Several different labor unions represent groups of railroad workers. The SMART group involved in these negotiations represents conductors and ground crew workers.

An advocacy group for all rail workers, Railroad Workers United, praised the vote because it has been campaigning against the idea of one-person crews for years because of concerns about safety risks.

But it’s clear that the issue of railroad crew size is far from settled.

Regulators at the Federal Railroad Administration have said they are studying whether to require two-person crews on the major freight railroads for safety.

And labor groups have been working to persuade Congress to pass legislation requiring freight railroads to use two-person crews.

But railroads will continue installing Positive Train Control systems, and other carriers may try to negotiate something similar to what BNSF proposed.

Congress ordered railroads to install the safety system by the end of 2015, but railroads have been seeking to delay that mandate to at least 2020 because of logistical and technical problems they’ve encountered.

The safety system is designed to address human error, which is responsible for about 40 percent of train accidents. It uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train position and speed, and stop them from colliding, derailing because of excessive speed, entering track where maintenance is being done, or going the wrong way because of a switching mistake.

BNSF railroad is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.