It was deja vu all over again this year as the Federal Railroad Administration adopted its final rule mandating a crew size of two for most trains.
The FRA in April issued its final, 233-page rule that generally requires two-person crews. Less than two weeks later four railroads – BNSF Railway, Union Pacific, the Indiana Rail Road and Florida East Coast Railway – filed lawsuits in federal courts to block the rule.
The FRA said the rule enhances safety, particularly in light of longer trains now operated by the Class I railroads. The Association of American Railroads said the rule was “unfounded and unnecessary” and said there was no data to support the FRA’s claims that operations are safer with two people in the cab rather than one.
The rule requires two-person crews except for certain operations “that do not pose significant safety risks to railroad employees, the public, or the environment.” It also allows some some existing one-person operations to continue, and includes a process for approving new one-person operations.
The FRA says the rule “closes a loophole” that would have allowed railroads to initiate single-crew operation without performing risk assessment, mitigating risks, or even notifying the agency. It also says it differs from the initial rule proposal by giving smaller Class II and III railroads the opportunity to continue or initiate one-person operations by notifying the FRA and complying with new federal safety standards.
The AAR says the rule is an “overreach” into an area historically addressed through collective bargaining, and will diminish the importance of the bargaining process by inserting the regulator between the parties.
Unions, however, praised the FRA action.
“This rule acknowledges that crew size is fundamentally a safety issue at its core,” Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “Rail workers experience the risks of the job daily, and have made it clear that two-person crews are inherently necessary to ensure the safe operation of our rail systems. While the FRA has considered action on crew size for almost a decade, operational and safety changes across the rail industry the last several years have only heightened the need for strong crew size regulations.”
The Trump administration, which takes office in January, might work to repeal the rule as it looks to roll back government regulations. In the first Trump administration, the FRA abandoned a similar rule in 2019 after failing to identify evidence to justify a safety need.
However, bipartisan rail safety legislation filed in Congress after the 2023 hazardous materials derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, would require two-person crews, among other things. The bills have been bottled up in committees in both the Senate and House.
Last month, Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) sought to get the bill out of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee to the House floor for a vote using a procedure known as a discharge petition.
This is the legislative version of a Hail Mary pass in football, and it’s unlikely that the bill will emerge from committee before the end of the congressional term.
In the last round of national contract negotiations, the Class I railroads sought to create ground-based conductor positions to assist engineer-only operations under certain circumstances. That was a stumbling block to negotiations, however, and the topic is not part of the current round of negotiations on contracts that would take effect in the second half of 2025.
Previous News Wire coverage:
FRA issues rule requiring two-person train crews, April 2, 2024
Class I railroads should thank FRA for two-person crew rule: Analysis, April 12, 2024
Railroads file suits to block two-person crew law, April 18, 2024
Missouri congressman seeks to block two-person crew rule, April 27, 2024
A rebuttal: Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena on one-person crews, May 20, 2024
House rail safety hearing highlights new legislation, July 23, 2024
