The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers maintained its pressure on Union Pacific Railroad in Kansas City last week over the use of remote-control technology.

On June 4, the engineers union posted an informational picket at Union Pacific's Neff Yard in North Kansas City, warning of potential dangers that exist with operating trains without engineers.

Union Pacific began using remote control at its Neff Yard last month for the coupling and uncoupling of rail cars. The union contends this will lead to railroads using remote control to operate trains across the country without engineers in the cabs.

"We're out here to let the general public know that Union Pacific is ignoring safety issues by using remote control," said Lynn Tinney, the local chairman of the union's Division 152. "Railroads ship a number of hazardous materials."

Tinney said a derailment occurred at Neff Yard shortly after the railroad starting using the remote-control technology.

Mark Davis, a Union Pacific spokesman at its Omaha headquarters, acknowledged an accident happened.

"It was upright, with no injuries and no spills," Davis said. "But at the same time, you have derailments with other equipment."

Davis said the engineers union is ignoring evidence from Canadian railroads, which have been using remote control since 1989.

"There have been significant reductions in derailments and overall operational improvements with the Canadian railroads," he said.

Remote control became an issue after the railroad industry assigned the remote-control work to switchmen and conductors of the United Transportation Union. The industry obtained a court order in January preventing the engineers union from striking because of the issue.

Rail employees receive two weeks of training before operating the remote control in the rail yards, Davis said. A supervisor remains with the workers until they become comfortable operating the remote control on their own, he said.

Tinney contended that two weeks' training is inadequate. Engineers receive training for six months to operate a locomotive before becoming certified, he said.

"The people operating remote control now are not familiar with the operations of a locomotive," he said. "They're not familiar with the tonnage and the stopping distances for that tonnage."

The engineers union continues to fight Union Pacific through the courts. The union filed a lawsuit in a Denver federal court last month seeking a preliminary injunction to prohibit the carrier from using remote control. Union Pacific has not filed a response and a hearing has not been set, according to an attorney for the union.

Tinney said Union Pacific and other railroads plan to operate trains through metropolitan areas and across the country by remote control.

Davis said such technology remains a long way from becoming reality.

"The whole idea is to use remote control in the rail yards," he said. "We're not using it on the main line, and I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future."

Speed limits

Yellow Corp. has launched a safety campaign in June for truckdrivers in conjunction with National Highway Safety Month.

Bill Zollars, Yellow's chairman and chief executive officer, was in Washington last week urging states to limit the maximum speed for trucks to 65 mph.

According to research by Yellow, 23 states have truck speed limits of 70 mph or 75 mph. Nineteen states have a truck speed limit of 65 mph.

"The general public feels like we've got too many trucks going too fast on the highways," Zollars said in an interview last week.

Yellow Transportation is one of the nation's biggest carriers. Zollars said the company's trucks can travel at a maximum speed of 62 mph. Other trucking companies set their trucks at speed limits below 65 mph, Zollars said.

However, Zollars said Yellow's campaign was not against independent-operators or smaller trucking firms.

"It's dangerous to classify one group over another," he said. "I think we're just focusing on trucks that are going too fast."

Zollars said the campaign also wants to encourage states to enforce their speed limits.

Another issue Yellow highlights in its campaign includes "masking," in which drivers with commercial licenses can keep speeding violations off their record through legal maneuvers. Aggressive driving and encouraging the use of seat belts also are brought up, Zollars said.

Zollars said Yellow also was undertaking the safety campaign in response to a series of articles in The Kansas City Star last December that focused on the dangers posed by fatigued truckdrivers.

"But it (safety) has been a No. 1 priority at Yellow for a long time," he said.