Rail workers: Long bomb trains are endangering the public

The mercury plummeted to 27 below zero while 44 mph winds blasted snow and ice, making the forest all around the tracks invisible. The freight train's power died 78 miles from the nearest village or farmhouse. It was right before the birth of Iowa-based locomotive engineer Jeff Kurtz's son, and he desperately wanted to be with his wife.

Climate change is throwing railway workers into more extreme weather, so blizzards and scalding heat waves are new everyday challenges. Some trains still have wood stoves that can keep a crew from freezing while they await rescue through a scary winter night. But this one didn't.

"So, we did what we always do when we're dead on the tracks; we got some paper towels soaking wet, then stuffed them around the door and windows," Kurtz told Raw Story. "The towels freeze solid and keep some of the wind from blowing in." He was grateful he wasn't stuck in a "bomb train" loaded with thousands of gallons of flammable, toxic chemicals.

Most Americans don't realize that bomb trains roll through U.S. cities daily. Even derailments and explosions don't get much national attention. Kurtz said there are no federal rules limiting how long a train can be and that the average train is a mile and a half long — and getting longer.

Railroads made record profits last year, yet they continue cost-cutting by assigning just one lone worker to keep a train as long as three miles on the tracks, running smoothly, Kurtz says. He regards one-person crews as dangerous, especially for bomb trains.

And there's always a hazard to be aware of. In summer, it's "sun kinks," stretches of track where the rails are so hot, the metal expands, making it impossible for wheels to roll along evenly.

Rail workers have been pleading with Congress since 2017 for more crew and shorter trains for the sake of workers and the public. And bomb train derailments are always a bizarre pain, even when there are no fatalities.

In 2007, a train loaded with propane exploded, forcing the evacuation of Oneida, New York homes, farms, the county jail, and an elementary school. The nearby forest blazed so intensely firefighters couldn't get near enough to douse it. The fire and toxic fumes closed down part of the state thruway.

The most famous deadly bomb train explosion was across the border in Quebec in 2013. A train of 67 cars carrying oil derailed. The blast obliterated Lac-Mégantic's historic downtown and killed 47 people. Thousands of gallons of fuel polluted the river, groundwater and soil for miles.

Last month, a derailed freight train full of highly corrosive hydrochloric acid leak forced the evacuation of 200 St. James parish homes in Louisiana. Hydrochloric acid damages the lungs and throat if inhaled and burns the skin if touched. Residents' houses were washed with chemicals that neutralized acid that had leaked from ruptured cars all over the ground. Well water had to be tested. Some soil had to be excavated and removed.

The acid's vapor is heavier than air, so they settle on the ground like a fog falling on a field. Farmers noticed there was a white film over cabbage and cauliflower fields. Residents say the acid clouds peeled paint off their vehicles.

Pres. Joe Biden averted a Christmastime railway workers' strike that would have cursed America with toilet paper shortages, inadequate medical supplies and moms fist-fighting in toy stores over the last Squishmallow or CoComelon Boo-Boo. Congress approved an emergency contract for rail workers that gave them more money but not the seven days of sick leave they desperately wanted. Kurtz says the inherent danger of the work is so stressful he's sure Americans don't want a worker with flu working any train, especially bomb trains. Rail workers are on call 24/7, often work on national holidays, and are separated for weeks from spouses and children to travel the rails.

"If you make a career of railway work, you're probably going to die young, die lonely and you will die unloved," Kurtz told Raw Story. "It's too much stress on a family to have one parent away for weeks at a time, never able to get permission to have a day off to go to your kid's game or take your wife to a movie or a concert on your anniversary."

EVEN KEY REPUBLICANS SUPPORTED SICK LEAVE FOR WORKERS

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics didn't track annual train derailments until 1990. America averages 1,704 derailments per year.

That doesn't include the deadliest of railroad accidents — crossing collisions. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says there were more than 1,600 collisions between trains and vehicles last year, with 500 at crossings.

If a long train malfunctions with just one crewman aboard, he must often walk more than a mile lugging a heavy toolbox, careful not to fall down a crumbly embankment or off a cliff to get to the problem. If there's a collision, EMTs and firefighters do the same. The U.S. Department of Transportation has TV ads showcasing this danger. The ads show a firefighter and medic running and panting alongside a stopped train, past a crumpled car door lying on the ground near twisted metal debris, and the faces of anxious onlookers as the first responders try to reach the injured.

"I can't even see the end of it!" the medic gasps.

The camera shows endless train cars around a curve.

The ad warns viewers that it can take long trains over a mile to screech to a halt after a crew member hits the brakes. But the ad puts the burden on car drivers to stop faster, not on railroads to restrict trains to a safe 8,000-foot length.

"Stop. Because trains can't," the ads grimly warn.

What's more troubling is that the DOT launched similar ads in 2017, when long trains were a new phenomenon that workers warned Congress was perilous. Railway workers test their skills and reactions to hazardous situations in a simulator akin to those that airline pilots use for training. In 2017, Kurtz said the simulator seemed flummoxed by mundane problems like faulty rails or sharp turns.

Railroad Workers United describes itself as a "caucus" of railroad workers from all crafts, all carriers, and all unions across North America. Kurtz recalls that one of the big union's significant breakthroughs was getting railroads to agree not to punish workers for going to the hospital.

Kurtz and other union negotiators felt hopeful this month because key Republicans, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley and Lindsay Graham, supported seven sick leave days for rail workers. Kurtz suspects that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was unenthused because railroad owners, like billionaire Warren Buffett, are such huge political donors.

The rail industry's political action committees gave $3.7 million to GOP and Democratic candidates for the 2020 elections, with 44 percent going to Democrats and 56 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive PoliticsBiden vowed to help railway workers get paid sick leave. Kurtz isn't sure it will happen even if Biden means well."So far, this Democratic administration is like our HR department on steroids," he remarks.

The Association of American Railroads didn't respond to interview requests. But the website for the group representing railroad owners and executives said that "more than 99.99% of all hazmat moved by rail reaches its destination without a release caused by a train accident, making rail a responsible choice when compared with other modes, like trucks."

The association has a national training center to teach first responders how to handle HAZMAT crises and "lowered HAZMAT accident rates by 64% since 2000."

It doesn't address why railroads can't give what the unions want: seven paid sick days and two workers assigned to every train. Kurtz says union members would be happy with trains limited to 8500 feet or about a mile and a half. Many U.S. railroad investors supported the call for sick leave via their membership in the 50-year-old Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of investment advisers and shareholders.

These changes seem easy, but the unions have been pleading for them for more than five years. Kurtz worries that "maybe it will take a catastrophe," a derailment too deadly to ignore, to bring about change.