The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) years-long regulatory adventure into mandating the crew sizes of freight trains continues. On April 2, the FRA finalized a regulation requiring two-man crews for most freight trains. Railroads are suing to block the rule from going into effect, arguing it is arbitrary and capricious. The FRA is supposed to be a safety regulatory agency, and the railroads argue there is no evidence that mandating two-man crews is related to safety.
The Associated Press was forthright in its description of the FRA’s mandate as “a milestone in organized labor’s long fight to preserve the practice.” With prospects of automation on the horizon, unions want the government to protect their staffing levels now. Another example of the same phenomenon recently happened in Kentucky, where the Teamsters pressured Governor Andy Beshear (D.) to veto legislation allowing driverless cars.
The regulation says most freight trains must have two crewmen in the cab of the locomotive. That is currently the industry standard for every major freight railroad in the U.S., as stipulated in their labor contracts. The railroads argue that crew sizes should continue to be left up to labor negotiations, not mandated by the FRA.
Some minor freight railroads and nearly all passenger railroads in the U.S. have one-man crews. Passenger and freight trains in the EU, Australia, and New Zealand also commonly have one-man crews. The activities of the second crewman have, in most cases, been replaced by technological advances. Seeing the overall trend of the global rail industry towards one-man crews, U.S. rail labor unions have sought government imposition of the status quo.
The Obama administration tried to oblige them in 2016 when the FRA first initiated this rulemaking process. It was not complete by the time the Trump administration began in January 2017, and in 2019, the FRA, under a Trump appointee, killed the rule.
By all indications, the Trump administration was right to do so. There is no evidence that two-man crews are, on average, safer than one-man crews. Last year’s train accident in East Palestine, Ohio, which some have used to argue for two-man crews as a safety response, occurred with three men in the cab (there was a trainee in addition to the two regular crew).
Yet the Biden administration revived the FRA rulemaking, likely as part of his stated goal of being “the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.” It revived it while labor negotiations were ongoing in 2022, interposing itself on the side of the unions while simultaneously acting as a broker between the two sides.
Challenging the April 2 rule are two Class I railroads, Union Pacific and BNSF, and two short-line railroads, the Indiana Railroad and Florida East Coast Railway. The Indiana Railroad already uses one-man crews and sued over a state-level crew-size mandate in Illinois in 2019.
The purpose of freight railroads is to move stuff safely and efficiently. If that can be done with one-man crews or, someday, with automated trains, railroads should not be hindered by the FRA from pursuing that technology. The FRA is not an economic regulatory agency, and the transportation sector is not a jobs program.