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The nation’s freighter railroads will be able to rely more on technology and inspect their tracks in person less often after the federal government approved their waiver request on Friday.
The Association of American Railroads trade group sought relief from inspection requirements written in 1971 because railroads believe that the automated track inspection technology they use today is so good at detecting problems early that human inspections are not needed as frequently. He says expanded tests run by BNSF and Norfolk Southern show that safety actually improved even when human inspections were reduced from twice a week to twice a month.
The Federal Railroad Administration did not go very far in its decision, but the agency said that railroads would be able to cut inspections to just once a week under the approved waiver.
The railways had also sought permission to allow up to three days to repair defects identified by automated inspections. But the Federal Railroad Administration said any serious faults in the tracks must be repaired immediately and all defects must be repaired within 24 hours.
Milan Says technology can miss problems
These automated inspection systems use an array of cameras and lasers installed on a locomotive or railcar that can be towed as part of a train to assess whether the tracks are moving or shifting out of alignment. But the union representing track inspectors says the technology can’t detect things like rocks slipping beneath the tracks, vegetation growing in the path of trains, cracks in the rails or rotting of the railroad tracks. Additionally, inspectors may see a combination of small faults that together can derail a train, where the machine may not register a problem, the union says.
“These are everyday defects all over the country that we find through visual inspection that can’t be detected by this machinery,” said Tony Cardwell, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees division union. “And that technology isn’t there. It’s been here for 30 years. It hasn’t really advanced at all. It’s a glorified tape measure.”
The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division union representing track inspectors acknowledges that this technology helps detect problems. But the union says this automated inspection tool should complement – not replace – human inspection because reducing track inspections would increase the risk of derailments.
Railroads believe that even if these systems can’t see ballast slipping or rotting ties under the tracks, the systems will notice symptoms of those problems because the track geometry – basically the alignment of the tracks – will be affected when those things happen.
“What it’s looking at is the ultimate performance. If those components are doing their job, the track geometry is being maintained. If they’re not doing their job, the track geometry is not being maintained,” said Mike Rush, senior vice president of safety and operations for the Association of American Railroads.
Companies say the technology is more effective
BNSF Railroad said when it was debating with the Federal Railroad Administration whether their testing should be expanded that “the technology has proven to be far more sensitive and effective in detecting geometry defects on BNSF’s network than the regime of manual visual inspections mandated by historic regulations.”
Over two years of testing, manual inspection found only 0.01 defects per 100 miles, compared to the portion of the railroad where the test was being run, where a combination of technology and less inspection found 4.54 defects per 100 miles.
The Federal Railroad Administration agreed that when these automated track inspection systems are used routinely, there is no need to inspect the tracks as frequently.
Cardwell and the union’s security director, Roy Morrison, believe this is a bad idea. He said one benefit of frequent inspections is that inspectors become well acquainted with their areas, which helps them recognize subtle changes. If they’re not on track often, it can be hard to spot problems, he said.
Morrison said, “A track inspector who is out on his mainline track twice a week knows that track inside out, and many times he will recognize a defect without even knowing what he is looking at.” “He’ll get out of the truck and say, ‘Hey, there’s something wrong here. Take some measurements and go, OK, this is what’s happening.’
But railroads say freeing inspectors from some of these mandatory track inspections will allow them to focus more on switches and other equipment that must be manually inspected. Also, Norfolk Southern said in its comments on the request that even though routine inspections are not being performed frequently, special inspections will be performed regularly whenever a major storm or flood occurs in a certain area to ensure that the tracks are not affected.
Norfolk Southern said that during its 18-month trial of reducing inspections using the technology, the railroad saw improvements in areas the automated system could not find because inspectors were free to spend more time focusing on those areas.