Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
UP says it is ready for 1 man crews
Edit topic
Updated your discussion topic below.
Subject
Enter a subject for your topic. Maximum 150 characters.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
UP ready for crews of one, CEO says <br /> <br />Union Pacific Railroad is more prepared for one-person train crews than the nation's other large railroads, and trains traveling across Nebraska and into Wyoming's Powder River Basin likely would be the first to be operated by just one person, the company's top executive said. <br /> <br />One-person crews would not operate trains throughout UP's system, though, Chairman and Chief Executive *** Davidson said in an interview. Areas where modern signal systems are in use with up-to-date technology would see one-person crews, and then probably just on through trains, he said, not those with additional stops. <br /> <br />"In and out of the coal fields of Wyoming, for instance," he said. "And the North Platte to Council Bluffs route." <br /> <br />Those areas have restrictive signals, which stop trains if crew members don't respond to alerts, and other advanced train-control systems, he said. <br /> <br />"We have large sections of our railroad that have the technology that would make (one-person crews) safe." <br /> <br />The nation's railroads have asked to negotiate with the 13 rail unions to allow one-person crews and to consolidate engineer and conductor job categories. <br /> <br />The railroads' national bargaining committee requested federal mediation this week to get negotiations started with the United Transportation Union, which represents mostly conductors. <br /> <br />The UTU filed a lawsuit over the one-person crew issue. The union also has said no technology exists today that would make one-person crews safe. <br /> <br />Switching to one-person crews would require changes beyond technology, Davidson said. "We have to change our paradigm of how we manage our railroad." <br /> <br />One change now taking place in some areas is the use of troubleshooting crews that assist when trains stop for mechanical or other unexpected reasons. The troubleshooters respond quickly, Davidson said, so the train can get going and its crew doesn't have to try to fix the problem itself. <br /> <br />Davidson said one-person crews would not operate trains in areas where crew members must manually line switches or where trains are not in contact electronically with dispatchers. <br /> <br />"If we do it, we'll do it productively." <br /> <br />Davidson said trains with one-person crews would be no more vulnerable to terrorist attacks or to other crime. When trains now must be left unguarded, crews lock down the locomotive so that the train can't be moved, he said. - Stacie Hamel, The Omaha World-Herald
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
E-mail Subscribe
Check the box below if you want to receive e-mail notifications when replies are made to this thread.
Receive notifications
Update Discussion Topic
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy