Infrastructure in no man’s land ahead of SOTU
THE ARGUMENT FOR A ZERO-CREW RAIL LAW: A new paper from the R Street Institute’s Nick Zaiac calls for federal railroad regulators to assert their authority over rail crew size rules , to help pave the way for further automation in the industry. With a wary eye on the possibility that states could again try to set their own limits or mandates for minimum crew sizes — several of which were overturned by the FRA’s recent decision not to move forward with an Obama-era rule that would have required two-person freight train crews — Zaiac suggests the FRA promulgate a rule codifying “sole federal authority over matters of railway staffing.”
Alternatively, he writes, Congress could pass a law which sets “zero ” as the federal statutory limit on crew sizes, which he argues would allow railroads to negotiate with their workers independently. This would accommodate the rapidly advancing technology that’s making rail safer and more efficient. “The prospect that railroads and their unions will negotiate labor agreements that move staff outside locomotive cabins and into remote operation centers and road-based vehicles is on the horizon and moving closer by the year,” Zaiac writes.
