Reported by John Gallagher for Freight Waves
FRA issued a preliminary determination in November finding that ASPA qualifies for the waiver, and invited public comments.
Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD), which represents railroad employees, argued in response that because ASPA’s bid request stipulates that the cranes allow for future conversion to remote operations, a waiver “may serve as a back door to securing federal funding for a huge share of the cost of equipment that will eventually be converted to semi-automated or automated functions.”
“Put simply, this strategy, if successful, would incentivize procurements that operators would not have made without the government’s intervention. In other words, the federal government would be subsidizing the near-future elimination of jobs.”