The Time Is NOW to Stand for the Rule of Two – SMART Union (smart-union.org)
The rule of two will affect Passenger RR operations, we are encouraging all members and their family’s to comment a on the FRA proposed rule requiring.
Please click and share the above link!
On July 28, 2022, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to announce its intent to make a formal federal regulation mandating the minimum crew size on most trains in America to be no less than a crew of two in the cab of a locomotive.
As part of the rulemaking process, FRA must open a comment period to ensure that its actions are in-line with public preference, concern, and safety. The comment period has been extended for 60 days and will expire on Dec. 2, 2022. Click here to watch a brief how-to video for submitting comments.
It is vital to the safety of our industry that your stories be told, and your fears be aired. Therefore, we are asking all of you to please take the time to comment, and to share this action with your friends, family and loved ones – encouraging them to do the same.
Each letter needs to be somewhat different.
Sample Comment 1:
My name is xxxxxxx, and I’m writing to comment on FRA’s Proposed Rule on Train Crew Size Safety Requirements. This issue is important to me because of my concern about the community where I live.
Trains that run through the country carry everything from mineral freight to spent nuclear rods. While working safely, these everyday commodities are transported with relative ease and no issues. However, with a strained workforce on call 24/7, it has made a complex job that usually could be done safely into a nearly impossible ticking time bomb absent the current two-person crew standard.
The conductor has a second set of eyes and in multiple areas takes a burden off the engineer, who is in charge of operating the locomotive. Usually, the conductor is the immediate responder who resolves the situation when the train experiences an emergency. A simple accident may become a fatality if the person on the ground has no one to call and cannot get through to the dispatcher.
Keeping the team of an engineer and a conductor aboard trains provides safety reinforcement, rapid response and will keep our trains running safely.
Sample Comment 2:
My name is xxxxxxx, and I’m writing to comment on FRA’s Proposed Rule on Train Crew Size Safety Requirements. This issue is important to me because it affects the health and safety of my family, my community and people all over our country.
Freight trains are crucial to our country’s supply chain, which means they transport everything from coal and grain to chemicals, hazardous or flammable materials and spent nuclear rods. These trains carry the goods that keep our country running. They also carry materials that, if not transported safely, have the potential to put our communities in danger.
Given the importance of the freight that trains carry and the potential danger for cities and towns these trains travel through when an accident occurs, two-person crews just make sense. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, in the cab of a freight train as much as in an airplane and having a conductor on-board can be a life-saver in case of fatigue, injury or accident. Keeping the team of an engineer and a conductor aboard trains provides rapid response and will keep our trains running safely. I strongly support this proposed regulation.
F. Current Operations
Since FRA already has regulations
requiring certain minimum standards
for locomotive engineers and
conductors,147 FRA has chosen not to
define the duties of the two required
crewmembers in this proposed rule.
Nearly every movement of a locomotive,
whether the locomotive is coupled to
other rolling equipment or not, requires
that the operation be performed by a
certified locomotive engineer.148 For
most current railroad operations, this is
accomplished with a two-person train
crew consisting of a locomotive
engineer and a conductor. Train crews
consisting of two people, one a
locomotive engineer and the other a
conductor, are universally the norm
because that crewmember configuration
provides the railroad with the necessary
flexibility to assign the crew where
operations have more complexity than a
one-person crew can be expected to
perform alone. That is, a train crew with
both a locomotive engineer and
conductor can be expected to work
independently, without the need for the
railroad to have separate plans regarding
how the train will accomplish switching
cars, protecting highway-rail grade
crossings, and other safety-related tasks
typically requiring more than just one-
person. It is also more efficient with a
conductor who can fill out any required
paperwork and receive mandatory
directives transmitted by radio while
the locomotive engineer keeps the train
moving.
Each current operation of a
locomotive or train that requires a
locomotive engineer is also required to
have a conductor, but FRA recognizes
that there are circumstances where a
person is ‘‘serving as both the conductor
and the engineer.’’ 149 With a one-person
train crew, the single crewmember must
be dual-certified as a locomotive
engineer and a conductor.150 In this
way, FRA currently requires that each
locomotive or train must have a crew
that can perform all the duties described
by the qualifications requirements in
FRA’s locomotive engineer and
conductor certification regulations.
FRA currently permits a train crew
consisting of a certified locomotive
engineer, who is not dual-certified as a
conductor, and a second person who is
a certified conductor attached to the
train crew, but not traveling on the
train.151 As proposed, this rule would
limit this practice to the excepted small
railroad operations under proposed
§ 218.129(c)(1), as the NPRM would
generally require crewmembers to be on
their moving train and only would
allow disembarking temporarily from
the train to perform duties assigned.152
Thus, a second person, even if that
person is a certified conductor, would
not be a train crewmember under this
proposed rule if the person is
intermittently assisting the train’s
movements and traveling in a motor
vehicle along a highway near the train.
If this proposed rule is finalized, FRA is
considering whether to amend the
references in the locomotive engineer
and conductor certification rules that
permit the current operation to explain
how these provisions are limited. FRA
would appreciate comments on this
issue.
Additionally, a railroad operation
with a train crew that consists of either:
(1) a locomotive engineer and
conductor; or (2) one crewmember that
is dual-certified may have other
operating employees identified as train
crewmembers. FRA currently defines
‘‘train crew’’ in § 218.5 as one or more
railroad employees who are: assigned to
a controlling locomotive; called to
perform service subject to the Federal
hours of service requirements; involved
with the movement of the equipment
they are called to operate; reporting and
working together as a unit that remains
in close contact, if more than one
employee; and subject to the railroad
operating rules and program of
operational tests and inspections
required in 49 CFR 217.9 and 217.11.
Thus, as FRA has an existing definition
of the requirements for a train crew,
FRA did not propose any new or
additional requirements for the train
crew in this proposed rule. FRA would
appreciate comments on this issue. An
alternative option is that FRA require a
second crewmember be a conductor,
even if the other crewmember is dual-
certified, in an effort to ensure a level
of teamwork that may not be attainable
with any other crewmember. This issue
is further explained below for freight
and passenger train operations.
