Do not reduce train crews to one

With profit seemingly driving all business decisions, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the country’s major railroad companies are continuing their quest to reduce freight trains crews … to one person. Not surprising, but scary.

The railroad bosses are united in their desire for this change, citing technological advances. Labor groups, those living on rail lines and people interested in common sense are opposed. Rail “crews” are already down to two — an engineer who drives the train and a conductor who oversees the long line of cars, communicates with dispatchers and provides a second set of monitoring eyes.

Through the decades, trains have only gotten longer, while carrying more hazardous materials, including coal and oil — a concern highlighted here in the past of couple of years as shipments into the Pacific Northwest, according to the Department of Ecology, went from zero barrels a year in 2011 to nearly 17 million barrels in 2013. The oil influx coincides with a proposal to build a coal export terminal at Cherry Point in Whatcom County, increasing daily rail traffic by nine trains.

Rail executives say that safety advances, including a new automatic braking system under development, could minimize risks, allowing the trains to be run by a one person crew, AP reported. Could minimize risks? That also means they might not. The blind belief in automation is not a compelling argument. Technology can supplement safety measures, but any advantage gained is lost when management views a new tool as a way to replace people.

The call for one-person crews comes even as new safety regulations for oil trains are being considered at the federal and state levels. It also comes as rail companies seek to increase train length in order to deliver more, and to expand capacity to handle more freight.

“These trains are 7,000 tons going 50 mph. You have to have two people,” J.P. Wright, an engineer for CSX railroad in Louisville, Kentucky, told AP. “It’s mindboggling to me that the railroads would go this far with it.”

The rail companies argue that a second person doesn’t necessarily improve safety.

“In many cases, that second crew member will be redundant,” said Frank Wilner, who has written six books on the rail industry.

When it comes to safety systems, redundancy is exactly what you want. Disaster prevention requires prudence. And taking more precautions, not less. When engineers and conductors say two people are needed to operate a train, everyone should listen. If disaster prevention isn’t enough motivation for rail management to drop this dangerous plan, perhaps they will understand that sticking with common-sense staffing will likely save them money in the long run.

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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