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Va. governor vetoes bill requiring two crew members on trains, federal guidance pending • Virginia Mercury [1]
['Nathaniel Cline', 'More From Author', '- March']
Date: 2024-03-12
Virginia’s legislative effort to require two crew members on all trains died after the governor vetoed the legislation on Friday. Following multiple train derailments in recent years, considerations of a similar requirement are ongoing at the national level, as the Federal Railroad Administration reviews research that indicates the onboard presence of two crew members may not make trains safer.
“While I support the goal of improving safety within the rail industry, the proposed methods appear premature and lack the necessary nuance required for effective regulation,” wrote Gov. Glenn Youngkin in his veto response on Friday.
Public interest in changing the crew size requirement increased sharply after a Norfolk Southern Railway Company train derailed in Ohio last year, spilling dangerous materials, some of which filtered into waterways. Norfolk Southern experienced a three-train crash and derailment in Pennsylvania on March 2, the Associated Press reports.
In 2016, the railroad administration stated that the “FRA cannot provide reliable or conclusive statistical data to suggest whether one-person crew operations are generally safer or less safe than multiple-person crew operations.”
New York-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman studied accident reporting data spanning a period from 2006 to 2019 for 28 railroads in Europe and concluded in a 2021 report there was “no evidence that railroads operating with two-person crews are statistically safer than railroads operating with one-person crews.”
This month, after several delays, the federal government is expected to make a decision on whether it will require two crewmembers on trains. Bill carriers Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, and Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, after learning of Youngkin’s veto, questioned whether the federal guidance will come soon enough.
“We’ve been waiting far too long,” said Simonds. “We’re getting into a place where if the federal government won’t take action and state governments can’t take action, we’re really putting our communities at risk just pushing this issue down the track.”
Carroll Foy, who appeared disappointed by the governor’s decision, said “It’s just a safety and service bill,” that would have provided more eyes on train safety and an extra set of hands in emergencies, or if a train needed to be decoupled for unexpected service purposes.
During the legislative session that wrapped up on Saturday, rail industry representatives testified that the legislation would create problems for businesses and rail operators challenged with finding rail workers. They also urged lawmakers to wait until the federal government’s ruling on the matter when legislation was introduced.
Youngkin echoed some of those concerns in his veto of the measure.
“Mandating crew sizes, as proposed, is a blunt regulatory tool that encroaches upon the established mechanisms for railroads and unions to negotiate staffing and scheduling matters through collective bargaining,” Youngkin wrote. He also cited worries that the bill could hurt the state’s economy by pushing traffic from railroads to highways, possibly worsen roadway congestion or blunt innovation in the rail industry.
According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, once the public comment period ends — which was extended past its original end date of December 21, 2022 — the Department of Transportation will then consider that feedback before its final ruling to determine whether two people will be required to operate trains. If the agency decides two crewmembers are necessary, it will publish a final rule reflecting that regulatory change in the Federal Register, with a specific date when the rule would become effective and enforceable in Virginia and other states.
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