Western Railroad Discussion > A Different Approach to Safety

As the railroads dither about accepting a penalty free process for employee reporting safety or maintenance issues, the airlines have seen a different approach. They already have a penalty free (?) system for reporting safety related issues to a neutral third party, but now the pilots union has added its powerful voice.

Seeking Alpha, citing a Bloomberg item,  reports that the Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots at American Airlines, has advised its members to exercise increased vigilance and avoid rushing when doing their pre-flight inspections. A disturbing number of reports of tools left in wheel wells, collisions while being towed, etc have been reported by its members.  Given the recent heightened awareness of skimping on railroad safety, perhaps allowing more than 90 seconds to inspect railcars would be a good idea for railroads.  Since they won't voluntarily do it, perhaps the collective bargaining groups should begin collecting safety reports / evidence when employees are disciplined for not rushing to do pre-departure car checks, brake lines, etc

Just watch the Barstow cam, I can see the "A: end coupled, the air hose in place, and the AB
assembly in place on the "B" end in less than 90 seocnds, what more do you need? (Asked the
Chairman of the Board). We can make jokes about all this but I swear they're all happy as long
as the train is moving aka "What us Worry?"

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/24 11:29 by callum_out.

The problem is that the activist investors are really calling the shots these days, and are actively trying to remove any CEO that dares to invest any money in safety or customer service. We just saw it happen at UP with Vena being installed and now happening at NS. About the only way it will stop is for a huge increase in regulatory enviroment that sends the activist investors elsewhere to make a quick buck before dumping the stock. But that would also place a huge burden on the employees and cause marginal operations to fold.
There is one thing that really needs to be done is putting electronic braking on all trains. Put a limit of 6000' on trains without 100% electronic braking, and the industry would quickly adopt it. But electronic braking would be about far more than braking, it would be a network where each railcar would have a onboard computer with sensors to check for stuff like high bearing temps, handbrake on/off, excessive forces that could detect derailments or rough train handling/couplings, stuck brakes and open doors and hatches. Technology is always a double edge sword. While it will prevent many instances of derailments and other damage, it will also cause a lot of false alerts that will slow down railroads too. I could lead to a lot of innovations, like automatic handbrakes. Imagine being able to untie a train by simply entering a employee ID and pressing a button the computer screen. 130 years ago, most railroads bit the bullet and upgraded to automatic couplers and air brakes. A similar revolution needs to happen again.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

90 seconds to inspect a railcar?   Try more like 15-30 seconds....

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As the railroads dither about accepting a penalty
> free process for employee reporting safety or
> maintenance issues, the airlines have seen a
> different approach. They already have a penalty
> free (?) system for reporting safety related
> issues to a neutral third party, but now the
> pilots union has added its powerful voice.
>
> Seeking Alpha, citing a Bloomberg item,  reports
> that the Allied Pilots Association, which
> represents pilots at American Airlines, has
> advised its members to exercise increased
> vigilance and avoid rushing when doing their
> pre-flight inspections. A disturbing number of
> reports of tools left in wheel wells, collisions
> while being towed, etc have been reported by its
> members.  Given the recent heightened awareness
> of skimping on railroad safety, perhaps allowing
> more than 90 seconds to inspect railcars would be
> a good idea for railroads.  Since they won't
> voluntarily do it, perhaps the collective
> bargaining groups should begin collecting safety
> reports / evidence when employees are disciplined
> for not rushing to do pre-departure car checks,
> brake lines, etc

Back to the Barstow cam, BNSF inspects off a golf cart in drive by mode, 15-30 seconds.

Out 

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The problem is that the activist investors

. . . uh . . .  speculators. Pump, gut, dump, move on to the next victim. Future? There is no future, just the price at the closing bell.

TAW

So, is getting the unions into safety inspection reporting a good development?I

Seems to work for the pilots

Posted from Android

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> funnelfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The problem is that the activist investors
>
> . . . uh . . .  speculators. Pump, gut, dump,
> move on to the next victim. Future? There is no
> future, just the price at the closing bell.
>
> TAW


THIS is part of the problem. And of course, NO EXPERIENCE required to be a "manager"....trying not to laugh....

Posted from Android