An accident waiting to happen, train workers say

Current and former locomotive engineers say oneperson freight-train crews are accidents waiting to happen.

One person — locomotive engineer Tom Harding — was responsible for operating and securing the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway oil-bearing train that crashed in Lac-Mégantic, killing approximately 50 people, on July 6.

It’s unclear what, if any, the one-man-crew role that played in the disaster, but the revelation that some freight trains carrying dangerous materials through populated areas are being operated by one person in Canada has sparked concern.

Transport Canada gave MMA and one other small railway permission to operate with only one employee on board. Now, the use of solo train operators is part of the Transportation Safety Board investigation into the Lac-Mégantic derailment.

Last week, MMA chairman Ed Burkhard tsaid: “We actually think that one-man crews are safer than twoman crews because there’s less exposure for employee injury and less distraction (for operators).”

Some industry observers disagree.

Normally, at least two people work on freight trains.

When trains are being parked, the engineer sets the air brake (a train’s primary brake) and the conductor leaves the cabin to set the hand brakes, noted Wayne Benedict, a former locomotive engineer who worked at CP Rail and B.C. Rail.

The air brake can be unintentionally released, he noted.

“If that one guy who is operating the train is off tying hand brakes, there’s a potential for a runaway train between when he leaves the locomotive and when he applies the hand brakes.”

If there’s “an unintentional release of the (air brake) before he applies sufficient hand brakes to hold the train in place, there’s no one at the front end to put the train in emergency and there’s no way he could get in a position” to stop the train.

James Goodrich, a former locomotive engineer for a predecessor company of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, said he can’t imagine doing the two jobs MMA expected one-person crews to fulfill.

Normally, an engineer is responsible for operating the locomotives

“He’s watching for signals, keeping track of where he’s at if he’s in dark territory and he’s looking out for things on the rail and problems in the rail,” Goodrich said.

“You have to know where you are, what the grades are, what the requirements are, what the dangers are — every detail of it — because you have to keep the train in one piece. Part of the train may be going uphill and part of it may be going downhill at any given time and if you don’t handle your train correctly you could cause an accident. It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not a UPS truck.”

The engineer, he noted, has “a lot to do without worrying about all the things that a conductor worries about.”

Among other things, the conductor is responsible for the cargo, keeping track of the schedule, determining whether a relief crew will be needed and looking ahead at how and where the train will have to be parked.

Another potential risk for one-person crews: The sole employee could be injured while setting brakes or fulfilling other duties outside the train.

When walking along train tracks, railway employees

“It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not a UPS

truck.”

JAMES GOODRICH

may be walking along uneven ground or embankments, Goodrich said. “It’s very possible to slip and now you’ve got a broken leg or a broken back somewhere down there in the bush,” he said.

A current locomotive engineer, who works for a major Canadian railway and did not want to be identified, said one-person crews can be particularly dangerous at small, lower-cost railways such as MMA.

There’s more chance employees of those railways will have to contend with track or locomotive problems on trips, adding further burdens to their work day, he noted.

Big railways tend to better maintain tracks and locomotives and have sensors that can detect problems with wheels and brakes, the engineer said.

“The other thing is fatigue,” he added. “That’s a big problem on the railways — with two guys, you’re watching each other’s back.”

Having a second person on board is a relatively inexpensive precaution that can pay for itself many times over in the long run, he said.

“You can live in your house for 30 years without a smoke detector and never have a problem. But if your house burns down because you didn’t spend $20 on a smoke detector, then you look pretty stupid.”