UTU News Digest - Tuesday, May 11, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, May 11, 1999

WASHINGTON, D.C.: DOT issues first passenger rail equipment rule

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), aiming to reduce even further the small number of injuries and deaths on rail passenger trains, issued its first rule ever on passenger railroad equipment yesterday.

"For the first time, detailed and specific federal requirements will govern the safety of the passenger rail and commuter trains," said Donald Itzkoff, deputy administrator of the Federal Railway Administration (FRA).

The rule requires new passenger cars put into service after November to be heavier and more fire-resistant, with all of the new requirements to be phased in by 2002. The requirements are mostly aimed at new rail cars and locomotives. Older train cars can get waivers.

Excluded from coverage are metropolitan and suburban short-haul railroads, such as the New York subway system and San Francisco's BART system, and the tourist, excursion and historic railroads.

The highly technical standards will require more steel, more fire-resistant materials and heavier steel collision posts. The improvements to existing cars are expected to cost about $4,000 a rail car, but most cars already conform with many of the rules because the industry has operated under voluntary guidelines for more than a decade. New cars will cost roughly the same to make as existing cars, DOT officials said.

To ensure that passengers can escape from cars after an accident, the rules will require emergency lighting, and some train windows will be made bigger so that people can get out of the cars more easily following crashes.

Also, overhead luggage racks will have to keep bags from coming loose and hitting passengers. The rules will include flammability standards for materials used in cars, and require improvements for locomotive fuel tanks to prevent puncturing.

Transportation officials said seat belts would not be part of the change because, even during crashes, train passengers do not experience the quick-stop, "pulse" problems of cars.

The requirements will revise existing standards on the inspection, testing and maintenance of power brakes, and establish new standards for the inspection and testing of mechanical components. Passenger railroads will also be required to undertake specific safety planning on aspects of railroad operations affecting equipment safety.

"The rule was developed in consultation with a working group comprising representatives of rail labor, Amtrak, and commuter railroads, as well as industry associations, passenger advocate groups, manufacturers and states," said FRA Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris.

Railway Administration officials said it was difficult to know whether the improvements might have saved lives in crashes like the Nov. 13, 1993, derailment of an Amtrak train near Intercession City, Fla., that killed 58 train passengers and crew members.

Despite that accident, train crashes are as rare as they are dramatic.

Only 22 passengers died in train crashes during the four-year period from 1995 to 1998, although train passengers traveled more than 55 billion miles. During the same period there were only 266 injuries in train crashes, many of them minor.

According to government figures, train travel is far safer than automobile travel. In 1997, a relatively good year, 1.4 passenger car occupants died per 100 million miles traveled, while from 1995 to 1998 the fatality rate for train passengers was 0.089 deaths per 100 million miles.

In 1984, the FRA issued guidelines recommending test methods and performance criteria for flammability and smoke emission characteristics of materials in passenger cars. Later updated in 1989, these guidelines have been followed voluntarily by passenger railroads. The final rule revises and codifies these earlier FRA recommendations.

VERMONT: Amtrak's new high-speed Acela derails while under tow

BARRE -- A car in one of Amtrak's new high-speed train sets derailed last weekend, sliding off the rails upright in Vermont as the train was being towed from a nearby plant to Philadelphia for testing.

One car in the eight-vehicle "Acela" train set derailed Saturday, said Rick Remington, an Amtrak spokesman.

Officials are uncertain of the cause, since the train was not under power. They are examining the quality of the tracks, which are near the Barre, Vt., factory of the train's maker, Bombardier.

The car that derailed was a "power car," known to laymen as an engine. It was at the end of a standard Acela train set, headed by another power car and followed by six coach cars.

New England Railway was towing the train set to the Northeast Corridor, which runs between Boston, New York and Washington, so Amtrak could begin testing the equipment on part of the route it is expected to start traveling by the end of this year.

The train was to be run on the Keystone Line in Pennsylvania during the day and then on a stretch near Princeton, N.J., during the night for high-speed testing.

Another train set is in Pueblo, Colo., undergoing separate tests. Remington said it has hit 140 mph with no problems. He said the testing has resulted in "just the normal tweaks" to the train set.

Acela trains are expected to travel up to 150 mph and cut travel times between New York and Boston and New York and Washington to three hours. When the brand was unveiled earlier this year, Amtrak officials emphasized the system's safety, saying it exceeded the standards used in European high-speed rail systems.

Remington said he did not know how the derailment might affect the testing schedule until the completion of an inspection of the car back at the Bombardier plant.

"We've been assured by Bombardier that they will do everything to keep it on schedule, and we're confident they will do so," he said.

Amtrak has not formally accepted delivery of the train set, but Bombardier is under strict delivery deadlines. The trains must also meet speed-of-trip goals.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Statistics show buses generally safe despite recent crashes

WASHINGTON -- Despite a run of deadly accidents, buses are generally a safe way to travel on the nation's highways, according to federal statistics.

On average, six people die in motor coach crashes each year. In 1997, 22,000 people died in passenger car crashes, 2,100 were killed in motorcycle crashes and just over 700 died in large truck crashes on U.S. interstates and highways.

While the numbers may be coldly reassuring, recent images are not -- renewing concerns at the National Transportation Safety Board.

Last June, a Greyhound bus that veered off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and smashed into a parked tractor-trailer, killing seven. On Christmas Eve, a casino-bound charter that slid off an icy Garden State Parkway, killing eight. On Sunday, another casino bus swerving off a highway in New Orleans, killing 22.

The safety board is just completing a special investigation of bus crash-worthiness, and preliminarily it has found that the most dangerous aspect of a crash is passenger ejection, said Joe Osterman, head of highway safety for the NTSB.

That may prompt the five-member board to recommend new guidelines for the size or rigidity of bus windows -- especially in new coaches offering panoramic views of the landscape.

It's also triggered a discussion of seat belts in motor coaches.

While the federal government has required seat belts in passenger cars since 1968, it has never required them in any kind of bus, whether school buses, transit buses or motor coaches. The thinking has long been that with their size, height, padded seats and high seat backs, buses offer passengers a protective cocoon in the event of a crash.

"The problem is that in a rollover, it creates flexing of the body (of the bus), which casts off windows," Osterman said. "In a bus that creates some fairly significant portals where the passengers can come out."

To date, the bus industry has cited the lack of research showing the benefit of seat belts. There is also concern that requiring seat belts might force the installation of stronger -- and more expensive -- seats and floors.

In Sunday's accident, a coach carrying elderly people headed for a Mississippi casino hurtled down an embankment off Interstate 610 in New Orleans. Investigators were checking witness reports of a car possibly cutting off the bus, but they were also looking into the driver's medical history and driving record.

One witness said: "People started flying out of the bus, flying out the windows."

A bus is technically any vehicle with more than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight that carries more than 10 people. That covers the spectrum from airport car rental vans to modern motor coaches, which carry up to 50 passengers and store their luggage in bays underneath.

Across the country, there are up to 4,000 motor coach companies, ranging from one-bus charter operations to Greyhound, a 2,100-bus company that provides the only regular nationwide service.

The industry has enjoyed 5 percent to 7 percent growth over the past six years, according to Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, which represents about two-thirds of the nation's bus fleet.

"It's a great way to travel. It's affordable, people can stay together," Pantuso said.

But Sunday's accident was typical in many respects: Casinos are a top destination for buses, in many cases the deaths occur when the bus leaves the roadway and the deadliest of accidents usually involve passenger ejections.

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall wrote a letter to the transportation secretary in February calling for better bus brake inspections and a closer study of driver fatigue.

Toward that end, the agency is conducting three hearings this year focusing on oversight of the industry and safety technology. The board is also expected to consider recommending improvements in seat and interior compartment design.

It concedes the safety of buses, however.

"There is occasionally some competition between motor coaches and school buses as to which is safer," Osterman said. "But they are the safest vehicles on the highway."

NORTH CAROLINA: Governor proclaims May 12 as OpLifesaver Day

RALEIGH -- Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. has officially proclaimed Wednesday, May 12, 1999 as North Carolina Operation Lifesaver Awareness Day for the State of North Carolina.

The ninth annual National Operation Lifesaver Awareness Day appropriately coincides with National Transportation Week, which is May 9-15.

Operation Lifesaver is a public information and education program dedicated to reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities at our some 5,000 highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad right-of-way.

During the last two years in North Carolina, there were 21 people killed and 106 injured in grade crossing crashes, according to Jane Mosley, State Coordinator, N.C. Operation Lifesaver. Additionally, 38 pedestrian/trespasser deaths have occurred.

North Carolina ranks fourteenth in the number of train/vehicle collisions in the United States and ranks seventh in the nation in trespasser deaths.

In an effort to eliminate these needless fatalities and injuries, N.C. Operation Lifesaver will be conducting grade crossing blitzes throughout North Carolina. These sites include Salisbury, Lexington, High Point, Raleigh, Pembroke, Morehead City, and Rocky Mount. Operation Lifesaver Day activities will also be held at the N.C. General Assembly.

NEW YORK: Feds reject plan to link LIRR with Grand Central Terminal

NEW YORK CITY -- The federal government has rejected a $4.6-billion plan to connect the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to Grand Central Terminal.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) says the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has not identified how to pay for the plan, and says the project would attract few new riders.

MTA officials said they plan to submit a new plan. The FTA is being relied on to provide half the funds for the project.

MICHIGAN: Group changes name to sound less WARR-like

LAKE ORION -- A Michigan-based chapter of a group of railroad women and wives is changing its name in a bid to soften its image and attract members.

"Until further notice, we are the Southeastern Michigan Region Four Subsidiary (of WARR)," the chapter's Chairperson Marlene Haines announced.

Women/Wives Against the Railroad (WARR) was founded in North Platte, Neb., in 1998 by Kathy Beisner, the wife of Union Pacific (UP) Railroad employee Ron Beisner, who was working long hours away from home. Angry at how the railroad's mismanagement of manpower was affecting her home life, she brought together others looking to take a stand for more humane scheduling and a better quality of life.

In July 1998, as the UP struggled to extricate itself from a logjam created in the wake of its acquisition of the Southern Pacific, the women of WARR met with UP executives to demand the carrier hire more workers, allow employees more rest time, and address safety and family issues.

Though several WARR members walked out of that meeting, claiming the railroad officials weren't addressing the issues, the UP responded by establishing a new scheduling program in September.

News of the group's success has inspired others nationwide to form WARR chapters.

But according to the Michigan chapter's Haines, "The name 'WARR' sounds a little harsh to us."

Haines noted the chapter she heads meets at 7 p.m., just prior to UTU Local 1709 meetings in the same hall (VFW Post #1008, Airport Rd. at M-59 in Waterford Township) where their spouses meet at 8 p.m., on the first Tuesday of each month.

"We've found we have a better source of information by going with our railroad workers to their union meetings," Haines said.

Haines has invited all parties interested in learning more about the effects the Conrail acquisition will have on families, insurance, unemployment benefits and other issues to attend the monthly meetings.