Industry News (March 2007)

By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor

Rail worker fatigue has been a hot safety topic for years. And last month, the issue got hotter. The House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials held a hearing on fatigue, and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) proposed the first changes to rail workers’ hours of service (HOS) regulations in 100 years.

A few days before the FRA announced its proposal, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker testified at the hearing that fatigue could be best addressed if Congress gave the FRA statutory authority to revise workers’ hours of service.

The FRA is attempting to obtain that authority through legislation. Last month, the agency submitted to Congress the Federal Railroad Safety Accountability and Improvement Act, which for the first time would authorize the FRA to regulate workers’ HOS.

The legislation would replace railroad HOS laws, which were enacted in 1907, with comprehensive and “scientifically based” regulations that address fatigue, the FRA said. Similar to how HOS standards are set for airline pilots and truck drivers, the FRA would set maximum on-duty or minimum off-duty hours for train crews, dispatchers and signal maintainers.

Enacting new law not enough, FRA says
A FRA Railroad Safety Advisory Committee comprising railroad managers, labor representatives and other stakeholders would review fatigue issues and develop recommendations on new HOS limits based on scientific evidence.

“Railroads have tried to take care of fatigue management themselves,” says FRA Administrator Joseph Boardman, referring to efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s. “We need to take a better approach to reduce risk, and you can’t do that by changing a law alone. We need a fatigue management plan and hours-of-service law that work together.”

A fatigue management plan should address workers’ opportunity to rest and not just the number of days off, he says.

“If someone has three days off, they might not manage that time well to make sure they’re eating and resting enough,” says Boardman. “If they only have 12 hours off, they have to manage that time.”

Recent scientific analyses have found a fatigued worker’s “state of effectiveness” is significantly reduced — perhaps 60 percent or less, he says.

At the subcommittee hearing, an intermodal industry official cited the need for a fatigue management plan that sets optimal off-duty hours.

“The overriding principle that should guide decisions is the need to address not just the number of hours worked, but the number of hours off between duty periods,” said National Center for Intermodal Transportation Co-Director Patrick Sherry, adding that the plan should be evaluated by an independent panel and include an accountability mechanism.

Railroads are “amenable to a thorough review of the HOS act” to determine which changes might be appropriate, said Association of American Railroads President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Hamberger during his subcommittee hearing testimony.

AAR: proceed with caution
However, a single set of mandates can’t account for varying circumstances at individual railroads, collectively bargained labor contracts must be addressed, and non-productive work/rest rules could impair roads’ ability to provide efficient and cost-effective service, said Hamberger.

“Railroads urge extreme caution in amending the [law],” he said. “If not carefully thought out, new fatigue-related regulatory or statutory mandates may not achieve the goals they are designed to achieve.”

Rail labor officials also are open to HOS changes. At the hearing, one official said fatigue still poses a safety threat to rail workers and the public.

“There is no question in our minds that safety degradation because of fatigue is a ticking time bomb in the rail industry,” said Tom Pontolillo, director of regulatory affairs for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, adding that the National Transportation Safety Board has identified crew fatigue as the cause of numerous accidents.

The FRA bill will be assigned to and considered by House and Senate committees. But it’ll be at least a couple of years before any regulatory changes are enacted if Congress passes the bill, says Boardman.

For now, it’s a positive sign that fatigue will be addressed from all rail safety stakeholders’ vantage points, he says.

“We need railroads, labor, government and the public to work together on this,” says Boardman. “This is something I’m committed to and will work hard at.”

After more than three years of planning, coordinating and fundraising, Chicago’s CREATE program is entering the construction phase. Last month, the program’s public and private partners announced the federal government released the first $25 million of an initial $100 million commitment to the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency, or CREATE, program.

Now, the partners — six Class Is, the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. (Metra), state of Illinois and city of Chicago — plan to begin construction on seven projects later this year.

Designed to ease freight- and transit-rail bottlenecks, and improve grade crossing safety, CREATE calls for establishing five rail corridors (including one primarily for passenger trains), grade separating 25 crossings, and building six flyovers and underpasses.

“This is good news not just for Chicago ... but for the entire nation,” said Association of American Railroads President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Hamberger in a prepared statement. “Some 1,200 freight and passenger trains a day go through Chicago.”

SEVEN PROJECTS ON SLATE
The projects scheduled for construction include: adding a second rail connection in Melrose Park between a Union Pacific Railroad and Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co. (IHB) line; upgrading a secondary track segment to a main track in LaGrange; installing new crossovers and signal equipment on a double-track section in Broadview; extending a rail connection between BNSF Railway Co. and IHB in McCook; installing a computerized signal system in three locations; installing an additional mainline track and computerized signal system in Chicago’s 12th Ward; and upgrading track and signals, and reconfiguring an interlocking in the city’s 14th Ward.

Under an initial $330 million, three-year funding pact reached in fall 2006, the federal government authorized $100 million for CREATE (as part of SAFETEA-LU), the state of Illinois committed $100 million, the six Class Is agreed to provide a combined $100 million and the city of Chicago pledged $30 million. First proposed in June 2003, the program is estimated to cost about $1.5 billion.

Currently, eight grade separation projects are in the design or construction phase, and another seven CREATE projects will get under way in 2008, the partners said.

“CREATE stands out as a prime example of what a public-private partnership can accomplish,” said Hamberger.