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By Joe Szabo – 
Federal Railroad Administrator

It seems like just yesterday, as UTU Illinois state legislative director and mayor of Riverdale, Ill., that I joined other mayors to successfully advocate for more frequent rail service from Chicago to downstate Illinois communities. 

At the time, even that modest goal seemed daunting, as conventional wisdom said Americans would no longer ride trains.

Fast forward to 2012, where 30 million people are riding Amtrak each year — more than ever before. 

The future looks even brighter. 

How did it happen? My brothers and sisters at the UTU worked with mayors, business owners, university presidents and environmental groups across the nation to show elected officials at all levels of government how better train service would transform local economies, provide Americans with more transportation options and create new jobs.

Decades of advocacy are finally paying dividends, as we finally have a president in Barack Obama who understands that our economy is dependent on the quality of our transportation system. President Obama invested more than $10 billion in regional rail networks that will provide a much needed alternative to congested highways and airports as our nation grows by 100 million people over the next 40 years.

As FRA administrator, I have visited communities across the country as they begin construction projects. Some include:

* New England, where service will reach new communities in Maine this year. 

* The Pacific Northwest, where new construction will lead to more frequent service between Seattle and Portland.

* The Midwest, where trips from Chicago to Detroit and St. Louis will be more than an hour shorter by 2014, and feature next-generation American-made trains.

* The Southeast, where new construction will lead to more frequent and reliable service between Charlotte and Raleigh.

* California, where construction is underway to add capacity to existing corridors, while the state breaks ground on its high-speed train system later this year.

The Obama administration also invested more than $3 billion to improve reliability and order new locomotives for the Northeast Corridor, while Northeast states begin planning for the next generation of the service.

In communities I visit, I meet leaders of both political parties who are excited to explain how their town will benefit from a project. As a former mayor, I relate. At the local level, transportation investments are not about politics – they are about creating new jobs, attracting new investment, and making the lives of our friends and neighbors better.

Now is the time for Congress to make the investments we need in passenger rail to create jobs today and provide America with the world-class transportation network we need in the 21st century.

(Prior to his April 2009 Senate confirmation as FRA administrator, Joe Szabo was UTU Illinois state legislative director. He is a fifth generation railroader.)

It’s confidential and no-fault.

And the result, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, is a significant reduction in rail workplace derailments that too often lead to serious injury and death — plus, as a bonus, better labor/management relationships and improved operational performance.

We’re talking about four pilot projects called Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS), whose core value is that railroaders don’t intentionally make mistakes, and the most effective means of correcting workplace errors that have the potential to cause death, injury and accidents is to investigate the cause in a non-judgmental environment.

In a review of C3RS pilot projects on Amtrak, Canadian Pacific, New Jersey Transit and Union Pacific, the FRA also determined they result in supervisors becoming “more fair and cooperative” and placing a greater value on safety relative to productivity, fewer discipline cases, and workers more willing to raise safety concerns with management.

C3RS is a collaborative effort involving the FRA, carriers, the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. 

The pilot projects encourage engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmasters to report — without fear of discipline or FRA enforcement action, even if rules violations are involved — close calls that may have resulted in accidents or injuries.

All C3RS reports by employees are collected anonymously and kept confidential. With names and locations masked, a C3RS peer review team recommends corrective action, such as improved training, changes in physical plant, changes in existing federal safety laws or regulations, changes in carrier operating rules, and improved training and/or education.

Examples of close calls include varying levels of risk, such as leaving pieces of equipment unsecured, improper blocking, operating trains beyond track authority, or violating operating rules.

UTU International Vice President John Previsich spearheads the UTU involvement in the four C3RS pilot projects – systemwide on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, and at CP’s Portage, Wis., yard, and UP’s North Platte, Neb., yard.

At UP, which has the most experience with  C3RS, the pilot project has led to reformatting track warrants so they are easier to read, and with a UP officer observing that C3RS “is helping UP move from a blame culture to one that bridges communication gaps between employees and management.”

The chief executive of Los Angeles Metrolink, John Fenton, who has taken the lead among railroads nationwide in advancing, investing in and implementing positive train control (PTC), is departing after two years on the job to head the Florida-based short line holding company Patriot Rail.

Patriot Rail owns 12 short line railroads operating in 12 states over some 500 miles of track. The UTU represents employees on four of those railroads. Patriot Rail is in the process of being acquired by Steel River Infrastructure Partners, which owns and operates port terminal and storage facilities and natural gas and electric transmission lines.

The UTU also represents conductors on Los Angeles Metrolink, whose commuter trains have operated under contract by Amtrak since June 2010.

Los Angeles Metrolink, America’s third largest commuter railroad, carrying 40,000 riders daily in six southern California counties, was rocked in 2008 when 25 people were killed and 135 injured in a horrific head-on crash with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, Calif. The National Transportation Board later blamed the accident primarily on the deceased Metrolink engineer said to have been texting on his cell phone and who ran a red stop signal. At that time, Metrolink trains were operated by Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of France-based Veolia Transport.

Fenton was hired as Metrolink CEO in the wake of the Chatsworth accident following a management shakeup that included, according to the Los Angeles Times, allegations of unaccounted for inventory and a sharply declining ridership.

The Los Angeles Times said that following Fenton’s arrival in April 2010, safety improved markedly, on-time performance improved, ridership grew and costs were reduced. Fenton oversaw the purchase of state-of-the-art rail cars with energy absorbing technology and took the lead among American railroads in pressing ahead with PTC and a timetable to have it operational by 2013, according to the Los Angeles Times.

PTC utilizes the satellite global positioning system (GPS), wireless communications and central control centers to monitor trains and prevent collisions by automatically applying the brakes on trains exceeding authorized speeds, about to run a red light, violate a work zone or run through a switch left in the wrong position.

Safety experts said the Chatsworth accident could have been avoided had PTC been installed. In embracing PTC technology, Fenton told a congressional hearing,“We don’t think there is any time to waste given the unforgiving nature of the environment in which we operate.” In bitter memory of the Chatsworth disaster, Fenton and Metrolink employees wear green wrist bands with the words, “Never Again.”

The Los Angeles Times quoted a safety expert at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering that Fenton’s “departure is a major loss for Southern California and Los Angeles. His safety-culture related accomplishments in such a short time, just two years, were monumental and unique in the country.” Metrolink partners with the Viterbi School of Engineering on safety advances.

Patriot Rail’s 12 short lines include:

* Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway in Montana

* Columbia & Cowitz Railway in Washington (UTU represented)

* DeQueen & Eastern Railway in Arkansas (UTU represented)

* Golden Triangle Railroad in Mississippi

* Louisiana & North West Railroad in Arkansas and Louisiana (UTU represented)

* Patriot Woods Railroad in Washington (UTU represented)

* Piedmont & Northern Railroad in North Carolina

* Sacramento Valley Railroad in California

* Temple & Central Texas Railway in Texas

* Tennessee Southern Railroad in Alabama and Tennessee

* Texas, Oklahoma & Eastern Railroad in Oklahoma

* Utah Central Railway

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – UTU Missouri State Legislative Director Ken Menges is halfway toward a goal of creating a public rail commission to study means of expanding and financing improved multi-modal passenger transportation in his state and throughout the Midwest, with an emphasis on creating a track network capable of supporting 150-mph rail passenger service.

In a show of bi-partisan support, the Missouri House of Representatives has voted 134-2 to create a 15-member commission to recommend best practices to “design, build, operate, maintain and finance an improved rail system for Missouri and the Midwest, including “specific recommendations for legislation, regulations, funding sources and way to integrate the improved rail system into existing and planned Amtrak expansions, airports and public transportation systems.”

The House bill is specific that the improved rail system be designed for 150-mph rail passenger service.

The focus now shifts to the state senate.

Menges said he has been working with representatives of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, as well as Missouri railroads and the state DOT, to gather bi-partisan legislative support.

U.S. Capitol Building; Capitol Building; Washington D.C.Public transportation funding, transportation jobs, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement and Medicare are under a mean-spirited and sustained attack by congressional conservatives who are trying to muscle their agenda through Congress prior to the November elections.

The UTU and Sheet Metal Workers International Association – now combined into the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) – along with other labor organizations, public interest groups, congressional Democrats and moderate Republicans are working on Capitol Hill to block these attempts, which could be devastating to working families.

UTU National Legislative Director James Stem and SMWIA Director of Governmental Affairs Jay Potesta outlined the conservatives’ agenda that has surfaced in proposed congressional transportation reauthorization and budget legislation:

* Cut $31.5 billion in federal transportation spending, which would threaten some 500,000 American jobs.

* Eliminate federal spending for Amtrak and expansion of intercity rail-passenger service and high-speed rail, with a direct impact on jobs associated with that service.

* Gut federal spending for the Alaska Railroad, which would force elimination of scores of train and engine workers represented by the UTU.

* Delay implementation of positive train control, which is a modern technology to reduce train accidents and save lives and limbs.

* Eliminate federal spending for expansion of local and regional transit service as Americans scramble to find alternatives to driving in the face of soaring gasoline prices. The federal spending cut would prevent the return to work of furloughed workers from budget-starved local transit systems and likely cause layoffs of still more transit workers.

* Encourage privatization of local transit systems, which would open the door for non-union operators eager to pay substandard wages and eliminate employee health care insurance and other benefits.

* Remove any requirement for shuttle-van operators, whose vehicles cross state lines, from paying even minimum wage or overtime – a proposal, which if enacted, could lead to applying that legislation to interstate transit operations.

* Eliminate Railroad Retirement Tier I benefits that exceed Social Security benefits even though railroads and rail employees pay 100 percent of those benefits through payroll taxes, with no federal funds contributing to Tier I benefits that exceed what is paid by Social Security.

* Replace direct federal spending on Medicare in favor of handing out vouchers to be used to purchase private insurance, which will undercut the viability of Medicare.

* Provide large tax breaks to millionaires and preserve tax breaks for Wall Street hedge funds that cater to the wealthy, while cutting by two-thirds federal assistance to veterans and public schools.

The UTU member-supported political action committee (PAC) is helping to fund election campaigns by labor-friendly candidates, and a labor-wide “get out the vote” drive will go door-to-door across America in support of labor-friendly candidates in advance of November elections.

In the meantime, UTU and SMWIA legislative offices will continue their education campaign on Capitol Hill, visiting congressional offices to explain the economic devastation the current conservative agenda would impose on working families.

 In preparation for a new operator of Caltrain commuter service in Northern California, the UTU has moved to protect its members who choose to transfer from Amtrak to the new operator.

Caltrain operates south from San Francisco to San Jose and Gilroy.

TransitAmerica Services, Inc. (TASI), a subsidiary of Herzog Transit Services, will replace Amtrak as operator of Caltrain beginning May 26, following a rebid process by the Joint Powers Board that controls the commuter operation. Amtrak has operated Caltrain since 1992. TASI won a five-year operating agreement that begins in May.

The UTU has reached an agreement with TASI, recognizing the UTU as the representative of conductors and assistant conductors who will be hired by TASI. The agreement governs rules, rates of pay and working conditions for conductors and assistant conductors on TASI, giving first right of hire to Amtrak employees who are working in the service as of May 25.

In the event that the number of Amtrak conductors and assistant conductors who apply for employment on TASI — and who are hired — exceeds the number of positions available at startup, such applicants will be placed on hiring pool list for subsequent employment.

UTU-represented conductors and assistant conductors in Amtrak Zone CS-2 on May 26 will, as a result of the change in operators, have no Amtrak positions left to work, and will be placed in home terminal/displaced status under provisions of Rule 8 of the current collective bargaining with Amtrak.

Conductors and assistant conductors have rights to flow to other Amtrak zones as provided under the Amtrak agreement.

If those rights are not exercised within a five-day period beginning May 26, the Amtrak Zone CS-2 conductors and assistant conductors will become home terminal furloughed, as provided by Rule 9 of the Amtrak agreement. Conductors and assistant conductors under home terminal furlough who accept employment with TASI will continue to maintain seniority and employment rights with Amtrak until such time as recalled to service by Amtrak.

Amtrak conductors and assistant conductors working outside Zone CS-2 may submit an application to TASI for employment, but must be aware that if non-Zone CS-2 conductors or assistant conductors choose to leave active status with Amtrak for employment with TASI, Amtrak will not grant a leave of absence and those individuals will terminate their employment rights and seniority with Amtrak.

Before making a decision on whether to apply for employment with TASI, the UTU recommends you review the TASI/UTU implementing and working agreements, which are available for inspection by clicking on the following link:

TASI/UTU implementing and working agreements

This agreement is modeled after the current Amtrak collective bargaining agreement, with some modifications and enhancements to reflect the new operator and the current round of negotiations with Amtrak.

The agreement preserves and enhances current crew consist and productivity allowances and retains years of service for vacation entitlement of Amtrak employees who are employed by TASI. In addition, the agreement provides for health and welfare benefits equivalent to those in the current Amtrak contract.

The negotiating team consisted of GO 769 Chairperson Dirk Sampson and Vice General Chairperson Charlie Yura. They were assisted by UTU International Vice President John Previsich.

“Chairpersons Sampson and Yura are to be commended for their leadership role in securiing for their members a first right-of-hire with the new operator, while maintaining for all of TASI’s UTU-represented employees wages and working conditions that are equal to, or exceed, those currently in place on Amtrak,” Previsich said.

Improvements to existing passenger train emergency systems regulations have been proposed by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The improvements are aimed at helping passengers and passenger-train crew members better locate and operate emergency exits during evacuations, and to assist first responders in reaching trapped passengers more quickly.

U.S. passenger railroads, including Amtrak and commuter carriers already have the most advanced passenger safety regulations on the globe. The Congressional Budget Office reported in 2003 that European and Asian nations impose lower crashworthiness standards than are imposed in the United States.

Specifically, the proposed new rules affect vestibule doors, emergency lighting, signage and markings for emergency entrances and exits, and rescue access. The new rules also require photo luminescent materials to highlight emergency exit path markings, and require instructions for emergency systems operations and requirements for debriefing after emergency situations and simulations.

“The proposed new requirements are based on the latest developments in passenger train emergency system technologies and best practices,” said FRA Administrator Joe Szabo.

UTU National Legislative Director James Stem said, “These amendments to the passenger train emergency systems rules are based on improvements in modern technology and the experiences of many years of operations.”

The proposed new rules were recommended by the FRA’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee’s (RSAC) Passenger Safety Working Group and its Emergency Preparedness Task Force, and incorporate three industry standards developed by the American Public Transportation Association.

UTU members participating in making the recommendations included District of Columbia Legislative Director Willie Bates (Local 1933), Long Island Rail Road Vice General Chairperson Michael Denn (GO 505), and retired Amtrak Local Chairperson David Brooks (Local 1470).

To read the Jan. 3 Federal Register Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, click here.

amtrak locomotive; amtrak car; amtrakWASHINGTON — Congress, unable to agree on very much lately, has agreed on funding for Amtrak, bus transportation, commercial aviation and transit through Sept. 30, 2012.

The funding is for fiscal year 2012, which began Oct. 1. Earlier, Congress agreed to legislation extending FY 2011 funding until final agreement on FY 2012 funding could be reached.

AMTRAK

For FY 2012, Amtrak will receive $1.42 billion, or $64 million less than Amtrak received in FY  2011. The 1.42 billion includes $466 million for operations — 17 percent below operating assistance provided Amtrak for the previous fiscal year. The remainder, or $952 million, is for capital improvements and debt service — 3 percent above what was provided for capital improvements and debt service in FY 2011.

In a victory for Amtrak, Congress agreed to scrap an earlier House effort to eliminate the use of federal dollars for 26 state-supported Amtrak routes, which help fund some 150 regional passenger trains serving nine million passengers annually.

However, Congress chose to zero-out new funding for higher-speed rail. President Obama had proposed $3.6 billion for higher-speed rail for FY 2012 (and $53 billion over six years), and the Senate had proposed $100 million for FY 2012. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Rail Subcommittee, said of the funding cut:

“I truly believe that it is the best we are going to do in this current economic climate. High-speed rail should be an option between any cities within a 500-mile radius, providing competitive trip times and fares, freeing up airspace and benefitting our environment, economy and national security. It makes no sense to abandon our efforts to develop high-speed rail in this country, so I hope the Republicans abandon their efforts to kill it.”

Congress also agreed to limit overtime payments by Amtrak to no more than $35,000 per employee, although there is an exemption if Amtrak finds that the cap for any specific employee would pose a risk to safety or operational efficiency.

BUS and TRANSIT

Congress voted $2.1 billion for the Federal Transit Administration, which includes an $18 million increase in funding for state and local bus grants to $8.3 billion for FY 2012. Also provided is $1.9 billion in grants for new bus and transit start-ups – an increase of $358 million from FY 2011. However, the legislation limits the federal share of new starts to 60 percent, which could pose problems for budget-challenged municipal transit agencies.

Congress has yet to agree on allowing a portion of federal dollars earmarked for new equipment and facilities to be used by municipalities and states for operations so as to retard elimination of bus routes and employee furloughs. The UTU National Legislative Office continues to educate congressional lawmakers on the importance of allowing such flexibility.

AVIATION

Congress funded the Essential Air Service program at $144 million for FY 2012, but included language limiting funds to communities that first received Essential Air Service grants in FY 2010 and FY 2011. Congress remains deadlocked on longer term authorization for the Essential Air Service program.

Additionally, the Federal Aviation Administration received $12.5 billion – an increase of $137 million from FY 2011 – for airports, facilities and equipment, as well as for the Next Generation Air Traffic Control System.

Amtrak LogoThe UTU, as a subcontractor to Amtrak, is in the final stages of developing a training manual – “Emerging Incidents Procedures” – for some 8,000 front-line Amtrak employees.

“The manual will be used as part of Amtrak’s 2012 Block Training cycle to assist frontline employees aboard trains, in stations and on platforms in developing skills related to situational awareness, observation, communication and response,” said UTU Training and Education Coordinator Bruce D. Feltmeyer

These Amtrak employees include conductors, assistant conductors, engineers, lead service attendants and on-board service employees.

“In preparation for developing the training manual, we performed an assessment of the Amtrak workplace culture by working with Amtrak police and utilizing electronic surveys and feedback from UTU regional meeting workshops,” Feltmeyer said.

“The assessment revealed the most prevalent problem was employees dealing with unruly passengers, which occurs not only at Amtrak, but at all ground service public transportation facilities in the United States,” Feltmeyer said.

“The training course will introduce scenario exercises and an array of techniques in understanding and dealing with them,” Feltmeyer said.

In November, the course materials will be delivered to Amtrak during UTU-team administered “Train-the-Trainer” session for 38 Amtrak facilitators.

Heroism has no timetable, no expectation, no formula. It is displayed instantaneously and accompanied only by rare courage.
Enter, center stage, two UTU heroes – Amtrak conductors Richard d’Alessandro and Loxie Sanders – a couple of regular rails, represented by the UTU and seemingly little different than neighbors down the street.
Richard d’Alessandro with Federal Railroad Administrator Joe Szabo

Their time of extreme selfless bravery came the night of June 24, when a tractor-trailer, traveling at high-speed, plowed directly into Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr near Lovelock, Nev.
The crunch of steel meeting steel at a highway-rail grade crossing is gut wrenching; the derailing of rail passenger cars, unnerving; the sudden and rapid spread of all-consuming fire, deadly; and the presence of thick smoke, terrifying.
It was at that moment that d’Alessandro and Sanders became heroes. Nobody nominated them. Nobody asked them. Nobody expected it of them. Such is heroism.
With passengers disoriented, injured and frightened — many seemingly hopelessly trapped in two burning passenger cars – d’Alessandro and Sanders demonstrated why highly trained passenger-train conductors are essential for passenger and train safety.
d’Alessandro, initially knocked unconscious by the horrendous collision, awoke to find he was lying outside his passenger car on the ground, an arm broken and finger missing. In complete disregard for his own life, and ignoring his painful injuries, d’Alessandro climbed back into the flaming cars in search of disoriented and injured passengers. First one, then another, and still another, he led and assisted them to safety through emergency exit windows and into waiting arms on the ground.
Only when the two no longer could hear voices or find additional passengers did they take leave of the burning passenger cars.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood with Loxie Sanders

Then Sanders, suffering smoke inhalation and a severely burned hand, remembered conductor Laurette Lee. Where was she? Once again, he climbed back into the mouth of burning and smoke-filled hell. Finding her dead beneath a metal door, Sanders lifted her body and carried it outside and away from the inferno.
Among the first to visit d’Alessandro and Sanders in the hospital following the accident was Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, who had taken the first available flight from Washington, D.C., to be at the scene of this horrific accident that claimed six lives and would have claimed many more had it not been for the selfless actions of d’Alessandro and Sanders.
On Nov. 3, d’Alessandro (UTU Local 166, Salt Lake City) and Sanders (UTU Local 1525, Carbondale, Ill.) were formally recognized in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Department of Transportation for heroism. In presenting the awards, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood cited both for saving lives “that went above and beyond the call of duty.”
And what did these two still humble heroes have to say after receiving the awards? They credited their classroom training, exercises and structured debriefings required under 49 CFR Part 238 as giving them the knowledge and tools.
Heroism, of course, can’t be legislated or regulated. Heroism comes from the heart and soul, and will long be remembered by dozens alive today only because when tragedy struck, well-trained and dedicated Amtrak conductors d’Alessandro and Sanders were present.

For more information on this accident, click on the following links:
www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2011/miriam_nv.html
www.ntsb.gov/news/2011/111102.html

One of the two burned out Amtrak passenger cars following the Nevada crash.