Probe Highlights Railroad Safety Deficiencies Federal Agency Finds Serious Problems In Union Pacific Operations

Dangerous train maneuvers, 90-hour work weeks and missing freight information are undermining safety on the nation’s largest railroad, the Federal Rail Administration chief said Wednesday.

Jolene M. Molitoris’ grim assessment came midway through her agency’s 10-day, systemwide safety review of Union Pacific Railroad, which was prompted by a recent series of train wrecks that killed seven people.

Eighty inspectors are riding the rails, talking to work crews and hovering over dispatchers, she said. They found serious dispatcher errors, including one impromptu decision to run a train against the flow of rail traffic.

Molitoris met with Union Pacific President Jerry Davis for almost three hours Wednesday to discuss changes.

“He gave us his full commitment to develop an action plan, with a timeline to address all of our concerns,” she said. They plan to meet again within the week.

Union Pacific officials said they would organize a safety team to address the agency’s concerns and appreciated the review of the company, which has 36,000 miles of track stretching west from the Mississippi River. They also said they would hold a safety summit with managers, agency officials and labor unions to deal with the concerns.

“Union Pacific’s commitment to preventing accidents and injuries to our people has never been stronger,” Davis said. “This team re-enforces that commitment and also sends the clear message that we will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes until we are running the safest railroad in the United States.”

Many of the safety problems are due to fatigue, Molitoris said.

“You have people who are working seven days a week, 12 plus hours a day with no time off. When you are that tired it makes top performance and safety assurance impossible,” she said.

“And that schedule isn’t just for a week or so, it’s constant. That is something the railroad is going to have to evaluate - just how many people do they need to run the railroad safely.”

Molitaris said inspectors discovered that one dispatcher talked a train through moves against the current of traffic without written authority, a direct violation of federal and Union Pacific rules.

Davis said that mistake was immediately corrected and would not happen again. He also said the railroad planned to hire 1,500 people by the end of the year to help ease the heavy work schedules.

Supervisors were so overloaded with administrative duties that they were not performing required routine safety checks on trains, Molitoris said, blaming the problem on Union Pacific’s $5.4 billion merger last year with Southern Pacific Rail Corp.