Vol. 79/No. 20 June 1, 2015
In a joint statement May 19, Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and John Previsich, president of the SMART Transportation Division, pointed squarely at what was responsible for the derailment — Congress and Amtrak’s decisions that mandated a single crew member on the railroad’s engines. “Safe transportation service demand[s] a crew of at least two fully trained and qualified employees in the control cab of every train,” they said.
The northbound train accelerated from 70 to 106 mph just moments before entering the Frankford Junction curve outside the city, which has a 50 mph speed limit.
The disaster could have been even worse if the train had crashed into nearby tank cars that can hold anything from oil and chemicals to corn syrup. A Conrail spokesperson refused to disclose the contents of the cars.
“This crash only missed the tank cars by 50 feet,” Kuyanna Wells, who lives with her children close to the rail yard, told the Militant. “They could have burned us all up.”
Brandon Bostian, 32, the train’s engineer, who was injured, has told investigators he does not remember the crash. His last memory before calling 911 at the derailment site is ringing the train’s bell as it went through the North Philadelphia station, Bostian’s lawyer said.
Some city officials and daily papers rushed to blame Bostian. “Clearly he [the engineer] was reckless and irresponsible in his actions,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told CNN May 13. “But there’s really no excuse that can be offered, literally, unless he had a heart attack.”
Paul Pokrowka, a former engineer and legislative director for SMART, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union, took issue with the mayor, saying Bostian has “already been pinned as the scapegoat. Mayor Nutter called this man reckless before we had any facts.”
When the government-funded passenger line was created in the 1970s, Amtrak trains were required to have at least two crew members in the control cabin, an engineer and a fireman. But in the name of reducing costs, “Amtrak has since 1983 refused to crew Northeast Corridor trains with more than one employee in the cab,” said the union officials’ statement.
“Why aren’t there, routinely, two people in the cab, as there are two pilots [on a plane]?” MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell asked Fritz Elder, former chairman of BLET Division 482 on May 15.
Rail workers have asked that question for a long time, Elder said. “From the point of view of operating engineers, we think that these kinds of decisions always get made by others — supposed experts. They never get made by those who actually do the work.”
Crew size the key question
Last September workers on BNSF Railway, members of SMART, mobilized and voted overwhelmingly to defeat a one-person crew proposal on freight trains. They held public protests and won support from other unionists and people who live near the tracks.The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration have pointed to the need for safety devices. On the southbound track heading into the curve where Train 188 derailed, Automatic Train Control — which automatically brakes a train that exceeds the limit if the engineer does not respond — has been in place for years. But Amtrak didn’t install it for the northbound track. It has been ordered to do so by the Federal Railroad Administration after the latest disaster.
The administration also ordered Amtrak to install speed limit signs along the track.
Amtrak has now promised to speed up installation of Positive Train Control, a more comprehensive system than Automatic Train Control. Positive Train Control currently operates in three segments of the Northeast Corridor lines, but only on 50 of the 226 miles from Washington, D.C., to New York.
“PTC is only a safety overlay that ensures a safer operation,” the May 19 joint union statement said, “and no technology can replace the level of safety provided when two crew members are on board and can serve as a check and balance to one another.”
Fatigue could be a factor
Many believe that fatigue was a factor in this derailment. Union representatives have pointed to new schedules on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, noting that many workers now work 13 to 16 hour days with reduced rest periods.A Sept. 20 letter from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 482 to Amtrak said new schedules make it difficult for workers to plan their rest and said bosses must stop “pressuring crews to sign up ‘on their rest’ in an effort to avoid compliance with Hours of Service Law.”
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt reported May 15 that the train might have been hit by a projectile. Just minutes before the derailment, two other trains in the same area — a SEPTA commuter train and an Amtrak Acela train — reported being hit. The SEPTA engineer’s window broke and the Acela’s was shattered. Sumwalt said the investigation of the derailment will take months.
The discussion about the crash has drawn attention to the dangerously deteriorating infrastructure of the 100-year-old rail system. Nonetheless, the day after the disaster the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut the Amtrak budget from $1.4 to $1.13 billion.
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