Freight railroads must keep 2-person crews, according to new federal rule

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

April 2, 2024, 8:28 AM


Major freight railroads will have to maintain two-person crews on most routes under a new federal rule that was finalized Tuesday.

The Transportation Department's Federal Railroad Administration released the details of the rule Tuesday morning, after working on it for the past two years.

There has been intense focus on railroad safety since the fiery February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio, but few significant changes have been made apart from steps the railroads pledged to take themselves and the agreements they made to provide paid sick time to nearly all workers. Such changes include adding hundreds more trackside detectors and tweaking how they respond to alerts from them. A railroad safety bill proposed in response to the derailment has stalled in Congress.

Rail unions have long opposed one-person crews because of a combination of safety and job concerns. Labor agreements requiring two-person crews have been in place for roughly 30 years at major railroads, although many short-line railroads already operate with one-person crews without problems. The unions say conductors play a crucial role in helping operate the train and keeping engineers alert, and they serve as a first responder if there is a problem or crash.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/freight-railroads-2-person-crews-new-federal-rule-108745240

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Link to Department of Transportation PRESS RELEASE - Biden-Harris Administration Announces Final Rule on Train Crew Size Safety Requirements to Improve Rail Safety

Link to DOT/Federal Railroad Administration RULE - https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/49-cfr-part-218-train-crew-size-safety-requirements

[Midnight Writer]

1. Oh, my. How will the poor railroads make a profit if they have to pay for two people on a crew?

[DENVERPOPS]

2. The railroads

already got rid of the caboose and person in it. That person watched the train from the back end and could see a problem developing.
The engineers in front can't look back, and don't have rear view mirrors........whatever goes on behind them is unknown and they just keep dragging what ever nightmare develops behind them at up to 65mph......

[Wonder Why]

3. They can't stop derailments of hazardous items with two people. How would they do it with one?

What's a few hundred innocent people getting sick when you can save so much money with a single person?

[Warpy]

6. They're jealous of European freight haulers

who typically do use one driver per train. Their trains are much shorter to accommodate shorter passing lloops. Tracks have mostly been nationalized and maintenance is constant to cut down on derailments. Locomotives are more modern and have alarms that must be attended to or the train will stop, making sure if the driver dozes off, disaster won't result. Telemetry allows operators to communicate with dispatchers and on some trains, see what other traffic is in the area. Otherwise, screens tell them when to divert at a passing loop and when they can just go through.

US rolling stock looks antiquated, period. Rails are minimally maintained. Derailments are just a part of doing business, I guess. I can see getting rid of the caboose, too many trains are so long there's no way the end man could spot much of anything in the way of problems. Too many dumbasses think rail is a relic of the past and don't realize fixing it and modernizing the system is a matter of national security. Instead, it's a cash cow being milked to fatten rich men even more.

You know, like everything else in this country.

They should have used the labor oversupply while they had it. Instead, we got hedge funds multiplying like bacteria and everything is falling apart.

[BaronChocula]

4. I can't wait to hear

the white nationalist caucus complain about the "burdensome regulation."

[Kennah]

9. This rule is clearly the result of DEI policies

[BaronChocula]

10. So on the nose! n/t

[riversedge]

5. k

[SergeStorms]

7. "Stalled in Congress".

It seems the republicans in Congress have only one job: to prevent any progress from being made for the people of this country.

They want everything to return to the "halcyon days" of the 19th century. You know, when there were no regulations, only white men voted, minorities "knew their place," disputes were handled by guns, and robber-barons owned the country.

Excuse me if I don't share their views of those "good old days." I think the best days in this country are yet to come, and not the republicans' idea of "best," either.

[czarjak]

8. Remote control is the ultimate goal.