Rail labor opposes Amtrak request for waiver to deal with ‘loss of shunt’ until testing data is shared

WASHINGTON — Three labor organizations have opposed Amtrak’s request for a waiver allowing installation of a device the company claims will prevent incidents where trains fail to trigger track circuits. As a result, a decades-old issue that recently has forced Amtrak to assign at least seven Superliners to trains operated over Canadian National’s Chicago-Carbondale, Ill., route is no closer to being resolved.

Amtrak filed a petition with the Federal Railroad Administration to allow “shunt-enhancer antenna” installations on Charger locomotives, the power normally assigned to state-supported Illini and Saluki round trips. If the locomotive can provide a reliable electrical path between the rails from these antenna, which would be installed less than 2.5 inches from the top of the rail, the weight and type of passenger cars assigned won’t matter.

The waiver request notes that FRA regulations only permit “flexible non-metallic sand pipe extension tips and trip cock arms” to extend that far. The antenna, which injects a 2- to 4-amp, 165-kHz signal into each rail to amplify current for a circuit that activates signals and highway warning devices, would be installed above the 2.5-inch threshold. But “worn wheels and dynamic profiles” might cause the device to protrude lower, hence the need for a waiver.

Canadian National and its signal engineers have taken the lead in investigating and attempting to rectify “loss of shunt” issues, as Trains News Wire detailed last year [see “The quest to counteract ‘loss of shunt’ …,” Sept. 5, 2023, and “Seeking answers on ‘loss of shunt’ …,” Sept. 6, 2023].

That report followed detailed discussions with CN personnel and preceded a visit to the railroad’s “LOS test track” in Pontiac, Mich., on Sept. 13, 2023. During the session, News Wire observed several test runs utilizing a signal-enhancing antenna and spoke extensively with engineering personnel conducting the tests, which had been underway for more than five years.

Findings not shared

At the time, News Wire agreed to hold details of the day’s testing until a final report was issued, but subsequent periodic inquires to CN went unanswered. Though Amtrak’s petition was filed a month later on Oct. 17, 2023, public notice of the request did not appear in the Federal Register until April 19, 2024. After that occurred, News Wire again asked CN via email for “at least a statement regarding this request,” noting that “the antenna solution appears to have been decided upon.” Again, there was no response.

Comments filed by the three unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, all expressed concern that they were never invited by the Loss of Shunt Committee — a group comprised of the FRA, Amtrak, and Class I railroad engineering staffs — to see any test results that led to Amtrak’s petition. Significantly, there was no evidence in the filings that any of the organizations even knew about the tests CN and Amtrak had been conducting at Pontiac, Mich., or south of Effingham, Ill., on the Illini-Saluki route.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen’s comment suggests rail labor was excluded from the process: “Amtrak’s petition was unclear about whether the antenna would function as a shunting device by contacting the rail. In contrast, the notice in the Federal Register indicated that the antenna would inject a 2-4 amp, 165 kHz signal into the rail. Currently, BRS is uncertain whether Amtrak intends to implement the approach described in the Federal Register notice or the one outlined in its petition. To provide informed comments, more precise information is needed. Often, new technologies are tested at facilities like the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) or MXV Rail. If this technology has been tested — whether through shunting the track or injecting a signal into the rail — it would be highly beneficial to have access to the testing data.”

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers’ filing from National President Edward A. Hall says its members have reported “widespread loss of shunt issues” including situations where it may occur if an engineer reduces speed below what a positive train control-induced slow order requires. “This suggests there may be complications with the PTC system where the computer is not registering track circuits properly,” according to the union.

Noting that the issue has caused cases of false clear signals, the BLE “therefore asks the FRA to deny this waiver until a full root cause analysis is performed and multiple solutions are considered that comprehensively address the problem.”

For whatever reason, CN and the Loss of Shunt Committee appear to have not shared their findings. A final report has yet to be issued while Superliners needed on sold-out long-distance trains will continue to run empty on the Illini and Saluki for the foreseeable future.