The Teamsters Rail Conference is demanding that BNSF Railway take immediate corrective action to better protect the safety of its workforce and the public, following a serious safety lapse involving the railroad’s automated dispatch systems.
In a near-catastrophic June 16 incident in Connell, Washington, a train carrying hazardous materials was improperly lined into a siding where a BMWED track inspector had active track-and-time authority. BNSF’s Movement Planner Auto-Router system (Auto-Router) and Train Management Dispatch System (TMDS) failed by allowing the improper alignment. Catastrophe was avoided after a train dispatcher became aware of the situation and took corrective action — not because the automated system performed as intended. Since then, BNSF has confirmed that the failure occurred, but acknowledged that it has been unable to replicate the condition that produced the failure.
On behalf of the Teamsters Rail Conference, BLET National President Mark Wallace and BMWED President Tony Cardwell expressed their urgent safety concerns in an August 12 letter (PDF) to BNSF’s Vice President of Labor Relations. The letter demands that BNSF retain a third-party engineer or technical firm (with no financial or operational interest in the system) to conduct a complete review of the technology, to determine the cause of the failure, and to recommend any corrective actions necessary before Auto-Router is returned to service.
During a July 30 meeting with BNSF, railroad managers maintained that Auto-Router could be returned to service despite the Rail Conference’s objections regarding the reliability of the system and doubts that BNSF has taken the necessary steps to prevent the failure from happening again.
“If the Carrier chooses to continue utilizing or return Auto-Router to service without an independent review, it will do so despite documented evidence of a safety-critical failure and despite the Teamsters Rail Conference having repeatedly raised these concerns directly with the Carrier,” Presidents Wallace and Cardwell wrote in their August 12 letter. “The Teamsters Rail Conference is not opposed to the use of technology in railroad operations. We are opposed to placing employees in harm’s way when the reliability of that technology has been called into serious question and the cause of its failure has not been adequately established.”
In the meantime, BMWED members are advised to remain aware of this issue and continue exercising caution when working under track authority. BMWED and the BLET will continue working alongside others in rail labor to voice safety concerns and aggressively monitor the usage of Auto-Router and TMDS.
Photo by Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659