Maine’s largest rail operator is installing technology at Rigby Yard that railroad workers say is dangerous and could cost some people their jobs.

Remote-controlled locomotives (RCLs) or remote-controlled operations (RCOs) have been used in the railroad industry for decades, but a recent series of deadly accidents have the industry’s biggest union sounding the alarm.

RCLs are operated using a body-worn remote-controlled system that allows a person to man the train, running the engine and brakes from somewhere other than the cab – sometimes from as far as half a mile away.

Union officials and rail workers are concerned that implementing this technology in South Portland’s Rigby Yard, the 245-acre rail yard situated between the Thornton Heights and Cash Corner neighborhoods, could pose serious risks for everyone involved.

Rigby Yard is full of explosive and hazardous materials, and an accident could be disastrous, not to mention the threat of someone being struck by the train, said Dave Stevenson, New England legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers transportation division (SMART-TD), the freight industry’s largest union.

“Our stance is that traditional conductor and locomotive engineer operations are the safest,” Stevenson said.

He’s also concerned that the new technology could put area engineers out of a job.

“(Railroads) like them because it eliminates the locomotive engineer position. They’re not shown to be safer,” he said of RCLs. “It’s just to get one guy off the train. It’s basically for their profit.”

Stevenson is pushing for action from local officials and urged the South Portland City Council to consider an ordinance banning remote control locomotives from moving hazmat cars and operating on tracks that connect with those carrying Amtrak passenger service.

Boston passed an ordinance restricting remote-controlled locomotives from transporting hazardous materials in 2003, he said.

It would be a “common sense solution,” Stevenson said.

In a statement, Florida-based CSX Transportation said every decision the rail operator makes is intended to transport freight as safely and efficiently as possible.

In 2022, CSX purchased Pan Am Railways and its 531 miles of track – including the 106 miles the Amtrak Downeaster passenger service runs on – and became the largest operator in Maine.

“Remote control operations in rail yards is not a new technology,” the company said. “CSX utilizes remote control locomotives primarily within rail yard environments and our operations comply with all federal regulations.”

The operators are Federal Railroad Administration-certified, receive specialized training and are required to complete regular recertification and an annual “check-ride” by a supervisor, CSX said.

The company said there is no firm timeline to implement remote control operations at Rigby Yard, though earlier this month, the company sent out a bid for the two-week training position, effective July 22, according to a CSX New England division notice obtained by the Portland Press Herald.

“All employees will continue to have positions to fill after the technology is implemented,” a spokesperson said.

ARE THE SAFEGUARDS SUFFICIENT?

While the trains are controlled remotely, they are not autonomous, said Jessica Kahanek, assistant vice president of communications for the Association of American Railroads.

The systems are commonly used in rail yards to move trains between tracks for breaking down and rebuilding or for industrial uses like manufacturing. But The New York Times reported that the trains are increasingly being used for longer distances, sometimes miles-long stretches between rail yards, snaking through residential and commercial neighborhoods and sometimes carrying hazardous cargo such as petroleum or hydrochloric acid.

There are no cameras or navigation sensors. Instead, visibility depends on what the controller can see from where he or she is standing.

The Federal Railroad Administration maintains that remote-controlled trains are perfectly safe and even have a better track record than manually controlled trains.

There are several built-in safety features designed to prevent catastrophe, including a “man down” feature that will stop the train if the operator trips or falls down, as well as a vigilance feature that will stop the train if the operator goes too long without interacting with the controller.

In designated “remote control zones,” the tracks also have specialized sensors or “pucks” placed in areas that require reduced speeds and that will slow or stop the train if the controller hasn’t.

“There are safeguards,” Kahanek said. “(RCLs are) pretty ubiquitous across different yards and different operations. They’re used every day across North America.”

Federal regulators in April finalized a new rule requiring rail companies to operate with at least two-person crews, but remote control-operated trains were exempted because of the existing safety requirements.

Despite the safeguards, there have been accidents that some rail workers say could have been prevented if someone was on the train.

In 2023, a 10-year-old boy in Buffalo, New York, was run over when he chased a ball between the cars of a CSX train that had suddenly begun to move, the Times reported. It stopped with his leg lodged underneath the train, but began to move again and his sister was able to pull him clear. The boy survived but lost his leg.

No one from the railroad had heard the boy’s screams or noticed him trapped on the tracks, the newspaper reported.

Then in September, an experienced Ohio railroad inspector was struck and killed by a CSX train when crossing the tracks.

The death of the railroad employee, Fred Anderson, prompted the Federal Railroad Administration to open a full review of RCL safety operations.

One Rigby Yard employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the recent accidents are “the epitome of what is preventable by an engineer.”

The train may not have been able to stop in either case, he said, but something as simple as blowing the horn likely could have caused either the boy or the inspector to jump back.

“We’re going to have derailments, we’re going to have incidents,” he said. “But it’s when you’re not there to immediately stop, to immediately respond, you keep going until you’ve destroyed something.”

And while rail officials like Kahanek note that nobody should ever trespass in a rail yard, the Rigby Yard worker said it’s going to happen. He’s seen plenty of kids playing or people wandering too close to the tracks in South Portland and Scarborough.

He’s worried that two weeks of training isn’t enough time to get a handle on the technology and said eliminating the engineer’s job puts the onus on conductors to do two jobs at once.

Inexperience can be dangerous in a rail yard, especially when trains are hauling caustic materials and explosives, he said.

“There’s just no benefit,” he said. “The only benefit is the carrier taking somebody off the train, reducing labor costs. There’s no efficiency gains, it doesn’t help the operations move faster.”

FEWER EYEBALLS ON THE TRACKS 

Rep. Chris Kessler, D-South Portland, said he has serious concerns about reducing the level of oversight at Rigby Yard.

The trains carry dangerous materials like liquid petroleum and the rail yard is close to two neighborhoods, which he said means kids or homeless people could be injured or killed if they wander into the area.

The situation is reminiscent, he said, of a 2015 community effort to block a plan by NGL Energy Partners to develop a liquified petroleum gas depot at the yard.

Opponents, fearing potential explosions, said it would pose a public safety threat to commercial and residential properties, though local fire officials vouched for the company’s plans to make the depot safe, noting that as many as 100 rail cars loaded with propane pass through Rigby Yard daily with little local security or oversight.

NGL withdrew its plans in 2016 after struggling for more than a year to win approval from city officials and the community at large.

“Safety around combustible fuels is a really important thing for people that live in that neighborhood,” Kessler said. “There’s certainly increased risk when you have fewer eyeballs on the tracks.”

Kessler is not opposed to remote-controlled locomotives as a whole. It’s a nuanced issue and in less-populated areas, they could be a good fit, he said. But he worries it’s not the right call for Rigby Yard, which is sandwiched between two dense residential neighborhoods.

“I feel like it really should be an immediate concern for the South Portland City Council to, at the very least, put a moratorium on its use while further information can be gained or more community input can be had,” he said.

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