One of the largest U.S. railroads and one of the largest labor organizations representing railroad workers have reached a tentative agreement to allow one person to operate a train on routes protected by a new collision-avoidance system required by Congress in 2008.
A BNSF Railway spokeswoman confirmed the agreement with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. If ratified by union members, it would cover 60 percent of the BNSF system.
Under the agreement, a sole engineer would operate most trains with the support of a remotely based "master conductor" on routes equipped with Positive Train Control.
The agreement was first reported Thursday by Railway Age, a trade publication.
The union represents roughly 3,000 BNSF employees in far-flung locations from the Upper Midwest to the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Northwest. Some of the cities include Fort Worth, Texas; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; and Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane and Pasco, Wash.
Roxanne Butler, a spokeswoman for BNSF, based in Fort Worth, said the agreement would not apply to trains carrying large volumes of hazardous materials, including crude oil and ethanol.
BNSF, which blankets the western two-thirds of the U.S., is the largest hauler of crude oil by rail in North America.
A Federal Railroad Administration emergency order last August required a minimum of two employees for such trains. Last July, an unattended crude oil train broke loose and rolled down a hill, derailing in the center of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, igniting massive fires and explosions that killed 47 people. A sole engineer was in charge of the train.
