Say it isn’t so…
From Altamont press:
UP looks at using a crew of one
Union Pacific Railroad will test technology that could lead to one-person train crews next year on its coal route in western Nebraska.
The prototype would be installed and tested in the South Morrill area, Chairman and Chief Executive *** Davidson said in an interview Thursday. That part of UP’s system handles trains coming and going from the coal fields of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.
The prototype would test global positioning and ground control technology intended to be used with one-person crews, but two-person crews would be used during the tests.
Railroad union officials say it would be unsafe to operate trains with one-person crews. They also worry about the loss of conductors’ jobs and the economic impact on railroad-dependent communities like Omaha, North Platte and Alliance, Neb.
Railroads have been using new technology to reduce crew size for decades, since diesel-powered locomotives took over for steam-driven engines that required firemen to shovel coal.
Jim Young, president of UP’s railroad, said a prototype is being designed now, along with one planned jointly for Eastport, Idaho, with the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
UP plans to install and test the prototypes in Nebraska and Idaho during the second quarter. A UP spokesman said the test would run about a year.
The railroad industry began negotiations a year ago with labor unions for the use of one-person crews. A train crew now usually consists of two people: an engineer and a conductor.
The United Transportation Union, which represents most conductors, filed a lawsuit last spring against the major railroads, maintaining that its agreements were not subject to national bargaining and require that every train crew include a conductor. That case is awaiting a decision by Judge G. Patrick Murphy in Southern Illinois Dist