The Federal Railroad Administration on Feb. 7 will hear just such a request from Union Pacific -- the railroad whose monumental operational snafus and high number of train accidents have made it a poster child for failed railroad merger policy.

The FRA hearing will be held in Laredo, Texas, the busiest of U.S. rail border crossings from Mexico.

Already at war with many of its customers over poor service and escalating prices for that service, Union Pacific now is seeking authority to avoid safety inspections on U.S. soil and run trains from Mexico as far as 1,500 miles through and into major U.S. metropolitan areas.

Those cities include Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Little Rock, New Orleans, St. Louis, and San Antonio -- the latter already no stranger to Union Pacific mayhem.

In June 2004, two residents of rural Bexar County, Texas (on the outskirts of San Antonio), died along with a Union Pacific train-crew member following a two-train collision and spewing of deadly chlorine gas from a ruptured tank car. The deadly cloud of chlorine gas drifted as far as San Antonio's Sea World Amusement Park, where six people were felled from the fumes.

According to news reports, Union Pacific failed to report important details of that deadly crash to federal officials, refused to cooperate with emergency responders and complained that emergency crews and investigators were "costing us millions of dollars." Some 160 schools are within one mile of train tracks passing through Bexar County where the deadly Union Pacific chlorine leak occurred in 2004.

The U.S. Coast Guard warns that within 10 minutes, a chlorine cloud from a ruptured tank car can spread for two miles. The U.S. Naval Research lab warns that a chlorine gas cloud from just one ruptured tank car could kill 100,000 people within 30 minutes were the tank-car rupture to take place in a heavily populated area.

In December, three cars of a Union Pacific freight train derailed in San Antonio. Fortunately, the derailed cars were carrying fertilizer and not deadly chemicals. Annually, Union Pacific carries almost 700,000 carloads of chemicals and allied products -- many of them deadly -- according to the Association of American Railroads.

Between 1998 and year-end 2003, FRA safety data reveal Union Pacific had the highest number of train accidents among the nation's major railroads.

A public safety official in Sacramento, Calif., estimates "there are several cars of hazardous materials every time we see a train." A Union Pacific spokesman told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that the railroad chooses not to tell the public about the risks from deadly hazardous materials traveling by rail. "We play that issue very close to the vest -- we're as general as we can be a about it," UP spokesperson John Bromley told the newspaper.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors says, "Our citizens should have a reasonable expectation that hazardous materials are being shipped in the safest manner possible."

The UTU's Thompson said, "If Union Pacific succeeds in its request to avoid U.S. safety inspections of trains originating in Mexico, the goal of U.S. mayors would be turned on its head. And the safety problem extends beyond Union Pacific. If Union Pacific succeeds in avoiding safety inspections on U.S. soil, many of those trains will be interchanged, without appropriate U.S. safety inspections, to other railroads, such as CSX and Norfolk Southern, as part of their 1,500-mile trip through dozens of U.S. cities," Thompson said.

More specifically, Union Pacific is seeking a waiver from existing federal safety regulations that require a brake system and other mechanical safety checks on trains originating in Mexico and interchanged to Union Pacific at Laredo, Texas. Currently, such mechanical safety tests must be performed on U.S. soil.

Union Pacific wants the train safety inspections to be performed, instead, in Mexico, where U.S. safety regulations have no force and need not be followed, and where the level of safety training and commitment is unknown.

Union Pacific claims the trains, after being inspected in Mexico, will travel only 12 miles into the U.S. from the border and then be available for a U.S. safety inspection. But FRA safety regulations do not require such a second test until the train travels 1,500 miles.

"Union Pacific says the purpose of the waiver is to speed rail traffic; so why would the railroad voluntarily slow its operation to perform another mechanical safety test 12 miles from the Mexican border when it need not do so?" Thompson asked. "It would be counter-productive to the railroad's underlying objective.

"Union Pacific, in pursuit of a higher stock price, shamelessly continues to thumb its nose at public safety and national security," Thompson said. "This same railroad has been pushing also to operate 100-car trains carrying deadly chemicals with but one crew member -- an objective strongly opposed by the American Chemistry Council, whose members produce and transport deadly hazardous materials."

"The FRA in 2004 rejected a similar request by Union Pacific for a waiver of inspection requirements on U.S. soil in favor of inspections in Mexico, and the public safety and national security demand the FRA again reject this waiver request," Thompson said.