Doing the Locomotion by Radio

Two of the nation’s largest railroads are turning to remote-controlled locomotives in their freight terminals throughout Southern California -- part of a national trend that has drawn fire from the engineers union.

The technology, which allows a worker to operate a locomotive with no engineer aboard, has been phased in by Burlington Northern Santa Fe over two years. Union Pacific is now training operators at its freight yards in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

Company officials say the arrangement is cheaper and safer than traditional methods that use so-called switch engines to assemble cars into freight trains.

“The safety record is superior to the conventional approach,” said John Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific, “and we believe remotes can match or surpass engineer-driven locomotives in efficiency.”

The transition to remote-controlled engines in Southern California is part of a three-year effort by the nation’s seven major railroads to adopt the technology, which has long been used in Canada.

But one of the most powerful railroad unions in the United States, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, has launched a national campaign against the technology -- prompting scores of cities, including San Francisco and Detroit, to pass resolutions limiting its use.

Union officials say the technique is not as safe as the railroads assert, moves fewer freight cars during work shifts than use of conventional engines, and threatens to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of well-paying jobs for engineers.

Although the railroads disagree, union representatives say the remote-controlled engines could be a harbinger of automated freight trains that would travel long distances with no one aboard to act in case of emergency.

The railroads “have blindly jumped into this thing, thinking it will cure all their ills,” said Timothy L. Smith, a Brotherhood official in California who has studied radio-controlled locomotives. “With all the new technology, CEOs will not be happy until they can go to work and push a green button and have their life-size Lionel train set move automatically.”

Since February 2002, Burlington Northern Santa Fe has installed remote-controlled equipment in at least 265 locomotives at 57 locations -- about 45% of the company’s switch engines. It has trained at least 4,800 employees in their use.

Remote-controlled locomotives now operate at the company’s freight terminals in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

Union Pacific has begun training in Anaheim and Santa Fe Springs for the first of about 400 employees assigned to freight yards in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. All are scheduled to be trained by April 2005, Bromley said.

The trainees are switching personnel and conductors who receive about two weeks of instruction. Unlike train engineers, who get six months of training for their regular job, remote operators are not qualified for main-line work. Yard workers also are paid considerably less.

Except for very short runs on main tracks, remote-controlled locomotives are almost exclusively confined to switching yards where freight cars are assembled into trains.

A conventional switching crew comprises an engineer in the cab and two workers on the ground who switch tracks and direct the movement of cars. They rely on hand signals and radios to communicate with the engineer.

With a remote-controlled locomotive, the engineer is eliminated, leaving two yard workers to conduct the switching operations. One or both can operate the locomotive via a radio transmitter mounted on a belt. The controls duplicate those in the engine’s cab.

If an operator stumbles or falls, or if the radio signal to the locomotive is interrupted, the system is designed to stop the engine automatically.

Another precaution includes creation of marked safety zones in freight yards where only remote-controlled engines can operate. Also, the transmitter unit sounds an alarm if the operator does not touch the controls within 45 seconds.

Though engineers are losing yard jobs, Burlington Northern and Union Pacific officials say the shift to remote-controlled engines has not resulted in layoffs. They say the new locomotives are freeing engineers so they can be sent where they are needed most -- to operate trains on main lines where there is a shortage of operators.

Company and government officials say the technology has reduced a major cause of yard accidents -- miscommunication between the engineer and the workers on the ground.

“The beauty of remote control is that it puts the operation of the engine into the hands of the switchman, who is the most at risk,” said Grady Cothen, acting safety director for the Federal Railroad Administration, which is monitoring remote operations and providing guidelines.

In a May 2004 interim report, the FRA concluded that remote-control-related accident rates were more than 13% lower from May to November 2003 than accident rates for conventional switching operations over the same period. The report also showed that employee injury rates were 57% lower for remote-controlled engines. A final report is due out next year.

In Canada, where remote-controlled engines have been used since 1989, the Canadian National Railway reported that from 1997 to 2001 the accident rate for those units was 44% lower than the accident rate for conventional switch engines.

Union officials, however, say there have been more deaths and amputations associated with remote-controlled locomotives than conventional switch engines. Their study of a 24-month period starting in January 2002 concluded that remote-related accidents have killed four workers and severed limbs in another four cases.

Conventional operations, union officials say, killed only two people, although manned engines did most of the switching work for the two-year period.

“More research needs to be done on safety,” Smith said.

Federal Railroad Administration officials question the union’s statistics. They cite the findings of an agency working group, which concluded that only one of the last six deaths involving switching operations was related to a remotely controlled engine. But the technology was not the cause.

Since its campaign began, the union estimates that nearly 60 cities, including Commerce in Los Angeles County, have passed resolutions opposing remote operations, though federal law overrides them. Nevertheless, Smith said the resolutions send “a clear and concise message” to railroad companies.

Though saving jobs is an issue for the union, Smith said the overriding concern was the safety of the public and railroad workers.

Trained and certified engineers, union officials say, should operate remote-controlled locomotives in the nation’s freight yards because they are the most qualified and experienced.

Railroad companies say, however, that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is simply trying to protect the jobs of its members.

“The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers does not complain when they have a contract to operate remote-control locomotives,” said Tom White, a spokesman for the American Assn. of Railroads, a trade organization and lobbying arm for rail companies.

The union has a labor contract with Montana Rail Link, a 900-mile system. Its engineers are cross-trained to operate remote-controlled locomotives.