February 3, 2003

Illinois 93^rd General Assembly

Honorable Legislator:

This information enclosed is to give you an update of a serious Safety Issue that is ongoing in our State today. This is for your information.

The issue is that of Remote Control Locomotives (RCL) operating in Illinois. There are Safety issues that the Illinois 90^th General Assembly, HB-0638 and HB-2667, tried to address. Those Safety concerns still exist and others have become known.

(1) Romeoville, IL on May 19, 2002 a Remote Control Locomotive (RCL) ran into 135^th Street blocking two of the four lanes at 2:40pm. The road was closed latter for repair.

(2) On August 18, 2002 in Galesburg a pedestrian’s right leg was amputated.

(3) In Chicago, IL on October 16, 2002, at Barr Yard, CSX a Remote Control Operator (RCO) ran Red Block controlling a Interlock

(4) Chicago, November 1, 2002, again at Barr Yard, a CSX RCO was injured making a coupling with a RCL.

(5) The latest accident on December 21, 2002, again at Galesburg, a Hump RCL derailed 17 cars, of which 15 had to be scraped, it also blocked the Main Line, that Amtrak uses, and derailed three cars on an empty coal train on the other side.

The Federal Railroad Administration, (FRA) has turned a blind eye to the potential Safety Hazards of Remote Control Operations. The FRA has allowed the qualification of these RCO’s to be 40 hours of classroom and 40 hours of on the job training to qualify.

As serious as the above mentioned accidents have been, we are lucky that a passenger train or some Haz-Mat material hasn’t been involved to the point where we have needed to evacuate one of our cities or towns. Most Yard Operations only had three members on the crew now there are only two and they are both on the ground. With the RCO in this situation I hope this will not increase the chance of something serious happening on one of our Railroads.

Sincerely yours,

C. Edward Way, Chairman

Illinois State Legislative Board

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers