News Clips

Spring 2004
Volume 111 - No. 1

BLET News Clips

"These things kill and maim. Evidently, the railroads don't have a conscience about that. Sometimes the man controlling that train may be a mile and a half away. If anything goes wrong, there's no one there to see children playing near the track or that there's a car stalled in the crossing." - BLET Division 762 (Memphis) Local Chairman Joe Hunt, on the dangers of remote control locomotives. Memphis Commercial Appeal, December 4, 2003. Circulation 177,190.

"Right now, everything is so new and so fresh that no one knows exactly what to make of the deal. Obviously, people are nervous about the unknown. But at the same time, most of us recognize that there could be a lot of positives that could come out of this, too. CN is an experienced operator, and it has the kind of money that's needed to revitalize our aging car fleet." - Former BLET DM&IR General Chairman R.E. DeLano, on the proposed acquisition of the DM&IR by the Canadian National Railway. (Minneapolis) Finance & Commerce, October 22, 2003. Circ. 1,000.

"I think rail fans are good people. Some of them are knowledgeable, they know more about railroads than I do. They don't trespass to any great extent, at least criminally." - BLET Division 294 (Bensenville, Ill.) Legislative Representative Donald Little, on the prevalence of rail fans in the Chicago area. (Chicago Heights) Star, October 23, 2003. Circ. 2,350.

"The operators will have the flexibility to operate in the traditional mode when it makes sense to do so and will alleviate some of the safety concerns that we have with the remote control operations in place on the Class 1's." - BLET TexMex General Chairman George Leyendecker, on the landmark remote control agreement negotiated between the railroad and the BLET. Railway Age, December 2003. Circ. 27,255.

"It's not unusual in a yard where you're trying to squeeze in as much rail in as possible particularly with operators in training." - BLET Division 373 (Trenton, N.J.) Legislative Representative Bob Daniels, on the derailments on the South Jersey Light Rail Line. (Camden, N.J.) Courier-Post, October 2, 2003. Circ. 60,550.

"Ask any engineer how an accident happened, and they can relate to the minute what went on. In a railroad engineer's career, they'll be involved in a minimum of three incidents in a 20 year career. It's an unfortunate part of our occupation. There are people in the industry who have been involved in 20 to 25 incidents." - BLET Assistant to the President John Tolman, on the lasting impact of critical incidents. Niagara Gazette, November 16, 2003. Circ. 46,766.

"We hope the Federal Railroad Administration and the rail companies will heed our concerns before another fatality occurs." - BLET National President Don M. Hahs, on a fatal remote control accident in San Antonio, Texas. Press Associates Inc., January 5, 2004.

"Controlling slack is a big deal. You can break the train in two by not controlling the train properly and you can tear up the lading. It hurts you controlling the train speed." -BLET Division 299 (Amarillo, Tex.) Local Chairman R.J. Maloy, on the day-to-day requirements of the position of locomotive engineer. Amarillo Globe-News, February 8, 2004. Circ. 51,729.

"It's some of the worst new equipment I've seen. They arrived dead on arrival." - BLET General Chairman Robert Vallochi, on New Jersey Transit's new Comet V rail cars. Dow Jones News Service, April 18, 2004. Circ. millions.

"If the signal system was working properly, the engineer would have realized that the block in front of him was occupied by another train. The signal would have had an aspect of some form of restricted speed or a positive stop indication." - BLET General Chairman Robert M. Evers, on a minor collission between a Long Island Rail Road train and an Amtrak locomotive. Newsday, April 20, 2004. Circ. 102,381.

"Railroads in general are trying to get too much work done with not enough people and our members are suffering because of it." - BLET Editor John Bentley, on Union Pacific's service crisis and manpower shortages. Journal of Commerce, March 14, 2004. Circ. 9,555.

Back to Spring 2004 Journal