Foote likens PTC to the advent of wayside detectors and end-of-train devices that allowed railroads operate more safely, while eliminating cabooses. PTC adds a layer of fail-safe protection, he says, and Australian mining company Rio Tinto already is operating iron ore trains from mine to port with no one in the cab.
“So the technology is there,” Foote told an investor conference today.
The Federal Railroad Administration has dropped its proposed rule that would have required two people in locomotive cabs, and regulators are aware that the potential for one-person or autonomous operations is around the corner.
Labor issues regarding a reducing crew size would have to be ironed out first — something that’s likely to not happen overnight, Foote says.
“I was lucky enough in one of my first jobs in the industry to be a fireman occasionally,” says Foote, who hired out with the Soo Line in Wisconsin, where the state still had a law requiring firemen aboard trains more than 25 years after the transition to diesel locomotives.
“It’s not like we are revolutionary and moving at breathtaking speed when it comes to the labor issues,” Foote says.
The Class I railroads have not yet said whether crew size will be among the issues raised in the so-called Section 6 notices that will begin the next round of national rail labor talks this fall.
The railroad industry has talked about wanting to get a return on its multi-billion dollar PTC investment beyond its safety benefits. Rail labor has been opposed to reducing crew sizes and has backed legislation in several states mandating two people in the cab.
“Leveraging the technology is our goal but recognizing that we have to do that, number one, in a very safe manner and, two, that we have to deal with the labor issues down the road,” Foote says.
CSX, like most railroads, is keeping an eye on developments in trucking, where driverless trucks and platooning would significantly erode railroads’ cost advantage and potentially lead to loss of traffic to the highway.
“We will watch very, very closely how autonomous vehicles on the highway system develop, evolve,” Foote says.
Foote spoke at the 35th Annual Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.
