WASHINGTON, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement in response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking establishing a minimum size for train crews:
“We have long argued that trains operated by one person are unsafe and should be barred by our government. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and its Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) advanced a proposal that would set a floor of at least two crew members on trains, with some exceptions. We commend Transportation Secretary Foxx and FRA Administrator Feinberg for moving forward on this long overdue rail safety initiative.
“We will make the case during the comment period for key modifications to the rule as proposed. Among our concerns are the ill-advised provisions offered as an option in the rule which would permit one-person crew operations in certain circumstances. These measures are overly lenient and should be removed from the final rule.
“The last thing Americans want are 19,000-ton freight trains, many loaded with hazardous materials, traversing our neighborhoods with a single crew member at the controls. We will advocate for a final federal rule that effectively prohibits the railroads from running one person train crew operations.”
CONTACT: Jonna Huseman, jonnah@ttd.org, 202-628-9262
[download_box title=”Statement on Proposed Rule Setting Train Crew Size Minimums” size=”180kb” description=”PDF Version” url=”https://ttd.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3.15.16-2PersonCrew-Statement.pdf”]