The above is the title of a News Release on Today’s TRAINS NEWSWire:
" I read elsewhere, that the Cost$ of Federal Regulations on the Regulated was something like $100 Million Dollars per Regulaton. This one may have some fairly onerous results for not only the Railroads, but for the Railfan Community, as well?
So here is a cut and paste from the Newswire article of this date:
FTA:"…WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration will require all “security sensitive employees” of Class I freight railroads, commuter lines, and Amtrak to have formal security training under a new regulation published Dec. 16. The rules also will apply to over-the-road bus companies.
“Security Training for Surface Transportation Employees” is intended to improve employees’ ability “to observe, assess, and respond to security risks and potential security breaches.”
The rule will require companies to establish formal TSA-approved training programs. Training should begin within a year. The Transportation Security Administration is the same agency responsible for a majority of U.S. airport security screenings.
According to the agency, the term security sensitive employees is a description that includes nearly every front-line position on a railroad: locomotive engineers, conductors, dispatchers, and maintenance-of-way employees. Each company will also be required to appoint security coordinators.
TSA takes particular note of the need to train freight railroad personnel engaged in the transport of explosive, toxic, or radioactive cargoes through “high threat urban areas.”
Unless there is a further regulation for the Trucking Industry, and its handling of various Haz-Mat shipments; The application of this Regulation may get very heavy and very expensive for our Nation (IMHO) [sigh]
Obama’s so called “Midnight Regulations” is one final shot of venom into our national economy. Midnight regulations are ones imposed by an outgoing president between the election and his final day in office. It is indeed a power grab by adding new regulations. The cost of these new regulations is nothing to sneeze at.
The past several years ‘Rules Classes’ have included a video and test pertaining to security threats on and about our property and our Urban Threat Areas.
Being East Coast, most of the division is a Urban Threat Area.
The only thing new will be TSA involvement which can only mean such training will be even more worthless than it is now.
For the past decade or more, the company has been preaching the 3 R’s.
Recognize that ‘something’ isn’t right.
Record your observations
Report your observations to company security personnel.
Souds like “THEY” have a plan, and are ‘working’ it! It seems that like many regulations written by the ‘Regulators’; They seem to think that in ordcer to gain the compliance of ‘The Regulated’. That is the scary part, of new regulations. There is usually a ‘carrot and stick’ (maybe, a CLUB ?) approach to gain compliance from the ‘Regulated’. Problem is, that the Regulators assess compliance and the accompanying fines. Then at that stage, it becomes a lawyer employment issue.
Another attempted power grab before the administration changes. I hope General Kelly in his new position at Homeland Security seeks out those responsible and reassigns them to the Nome office in charge of our polar bear defenses!
Does anyone believe railroad employees are so clueless that they can only make a contribution only if they receive such “TSA approved” guidance?
I thought that the rule in the old rule books covered any situation. I do not remember the exact wording, but the sense of it was that employees would unite in protecting company property. Of course, if you are the only employee in evidence, you would do everything you possibly could to protect the property.
Yeah, we’ve been getting the same thing at our rules class sessions.
Since I was under the impression that the training (video and test) was in conjunction with the Government, maybe it’s been voluntary and they want to make it mandatory. I would expect most of the larger railroads already do this but some of the smaller short line and contract switching outfits might not.
Management, of all kinds and not just railroads, these days think their blue collar employess, no matter their level of education and/or years of doing their jobs, are complete morons who couldn’t function without direction from above.
Many in government now believe that the common person is so helpless that they can’t live without government edict and instruction.
So, yes. I can believe that there are some who think railroaders are clueless and need the proper guidance. Sadly, there are always a few who prove the Government and management right. The vast majority just pay the price for those few.
Amen. This was a long-time sore point with me. By the time I retired we were not supposed to know how to do the things we had been doing for 30 years. Decision-making was gradually being taken away from us. I always figured it was because management figured that people who got their hands dirty only did that kind of work because they were too dumb to do anything else.
I am glad that I retired when I did. A few years ago, I had some correspondence with a man who was a level above me. He told me that people in the company’s headquarters were begining to mico-manage–as though he did not know how to do his job, so he quit.
He was my supervisor for a while–and two or three times I did something that I knew it was time to take care of, and he thought that I had done something extraordinary; to me, it was a part of my responsibility. I do like the awards I was given for just doing my job.
At times, I would describe my job as that of an executive gopher–insted of being told what go for, I determined what needed to be done, and took care of the matter.
Welcome to my world. I had to explain just yesterday to a DHS employee that the one of the acids we haul has dual uses if it is above this purity aks not diluted with pure water it is considered a WMD and very nasty. However if it is diluted and such it is used to make everyday products. He went which one is that I went Sulphric acid. He was like what I was like yep pure that stuff has a PH of less than 1 and will eat thru about anything except Glass and stainless Steel. Dilute it and they use it in cleaning chemicals. He about fainted. I was like right now on my lot I have 20K gallons of that in the pure state. He crapped his Dockers in my office.
Why we got the visit was due to the crap in Berlin.
Back in the late 70’s, when the L&N was having trouble keeping HAZMAT on the rail throughout the South. The City of Baltimore ‘thought’ they wanted to be notified whenever HAZMAT commodities were moved into or through Baltimore. When they were provided the information they had requested from the Chessie System for the 200-300 cars that moved into or through Baltimore on a daily basis, the city decided they only wanted to know when a problem was encountered.
Big Data can provide more information than the requesters ever dreamed of or have the ability to handle.
Yep we had to respind a couple months ago to a nazmat accident near us called we are the only certifed hazmat carrier in the area that normally has empty tank trailers if needed. Well our driver gets to the accident sees that he will have to pump off the other trailer into his and starts to do it. He then asks for the paperwork looks and goes your having a heart attack over this stuff. The Fire department is running around in full decon suits and everything our driver is walking around in his normal uniform. The State trooper handling the accident walks up and goes your not in full gear why. Our driver walks up to his cab grabs his bottle of pop and goes read the ingredients and then goes read the Bill of Lading. See anything in this bottle that is on there. It was Phosphoric Acid a common ingredient in carbinated drinks. The cop just about fainted.