Recently, there has been public hearings regarding autonomous trains. Several railroads are attempting to get the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to approve the movement of trains without crews on board. The railroads feel that with recent implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and Trip Optimizer (TO) trains can be run safely with only a single person in the locomotive cab, with the desire to eventually have none.
If you ever have to chance to ask the following questions of those suggesting and possibly approving these actions, here are some suggestions.
1. Ask them if there will be "eyes on board". By this I mean is there someone or something that will be looking outside the cab. And not just forward. Currently, most locomotives have cameras that point forward. Those cameras are used during incident investigations. But they are black and white imagery. Trains run 24 hours a day. Grainy black and white just won't do it on a dark and stormy night.
Friday, July 19, 2019
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Letter to President Trump
Some of you may be aware that I am a conductor on a Class 1 railroad. There are big changes happening on my railroad. Most of them are not good. But that is a post for a different day. The most impacting and troublesome will be an attempt by the large railroads to reduce crew size. Currently, on long haul freight trains there are two people in the cab of a locomotive, the engineer and the conductor. The job of the engineer is to safely operate the train from point A to point B. The role of the conductor, who is charge of the train, is to ensure operations are conducted safety and in a timely manner.
For the past several years the railroads and the unions have been at loggerheads over the crew size. The railroads feel that with recent safety features, such as Positive Train Control (PTC) and Trip Optimizer (TO) trains can be run safely with only one crew member, and possibly with none. The unions, however, don't support this, obviously. They counter that fatigue, due to our completely unpredictable duty schedule and sleep patterns, warrants the continuation of the two person crew. It is true that PTC can stop a train when necessary, but this is often the option of last resort, resulting in a very aggressive, and some violent, stop. With two people in the cab one of us always monitoring the route ahead. While sleeping in the cab is not condoned by either the railroads or the unions, fatigue can have an impact on focus. Two people in the cab negates this significantly.
For the past several years the railroads and the unions have been at loggerheads over the crew size. The railroads feel that with recent safety features, such as Positive Train Control (PTC) and Trip Optimizer (TO) trains can be run safely with only one crew member, and possibly with none. The unions, however, don't support this, obviously. They counter that fatigue, due to our completely unpredictable duty schedule and sleep patterns, warrants the continuation of the two person crew. It is true that PTC can stop a train when necessary, but this is often the option of last resort, resulting in a very aggressive, and some violent, stop. With two people in the cab one of us always monitoring the route ahead. While sleeping in the cab is not condoned by either the railroads or the unions, fatigue can have an impact on focus. Two people in the cab negates this significantly.
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