transportation

By John Russell - More Perfect Union, March 9, 2023

By staff - Greener Jobs Alliance, March 8, 2023

This Blog contains a number of statements and briefings on the Ultra Low Emissions Zone extension.

• Editor’s view (pers cap)
• Health impacts of Polluted Air in Outer London – Imperial College
• Mum’s for Lungs view
• Trade Union Clean Air Network (TUCAN) statement
• Friends of the Earth Briefing
• The truth about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – Possible

Making Positive Demands to clean up our air and cut car dependence

Anyone who watched the London Mayor’s Question Time from Ealing last week will not have missed the atmosphere of fear and loathing that make this issue almost as toxic as the air we breathe.

There are four overlapping imperatives when dealing with transport in cities.

That greenhouse gas emissions from transport are a quarter of the UK’s total and have not declined for ten years because, while car engines have become more efficient, more people are driving them, and the models they are driving are heavier. This has to be cut hard and fast to allow us to survive as a society.

People have to get around and, overall, cars are becoming more of a problem than a solution. If the 40% of people in London who don’t have cars did, no one would be able to get anywhere; because the streets would be gridlocked. The individual “aspiration” to own a car becomes socially dystopian if universally realised. For freer flowing, quieter, safer streets, we need fewer cars and fewer car journeys. We will have less of a need to travel inconvenient distances if we enrich our immediate neighbourhoods. 

We need cleaner air for our health and life expectancy. 90% of people want it. Some people drive. Everybody breathes. 

Some people are locked into car use, because they can’t afford to live near work and need concrete affordable alternatives as they are understandably anxious about how they are going to cope.

By Maddock Thomas - Brown Political Review, March 7, 2023

Railroads in the United States have avoided electrification, lagging behind much of the rest of the world. Consequently, American railroads are some of the largest consumers of diesel. In 2018, they used 4.2 billion gallons of diesel, second only to the US military. This diesel becomes quite expensive when prices spike during fuel crises. While railroads often claim to be improving fuel efficiency, they have failed to invest in the obvious solution: electrification. Railroad electrification would massively reduce pollution, improve operating efficiency, lower costs, and clear the way for faster rail service. With all these benefits, why have American railroads failed to electrify? The answer has to do with monopolization, a short-sighted focus on profit, and lack of national planning. However, it is not too late to correct our failures now. The US can still create a world-class, electrified rail network by nationalizing railroad infrastructure and recognizing it as a public good.

The US rail network is privately owned, largely by two sets of regional duopolies: CSX and Norfolk Southern in the east, and BNSF and Union Pacific in the west. These companies are fastidiously opposed to deploying capital that would improve infrastructure. As a result, they are unwilling to fund electrification and focus on cutting costs and services in order to reap higher profits. 

This refusal to invest in better rail infrastructure in pursuit of short-term profits is short-sighted at best and downright counterproductive at worst. The operating cost of electrified railways is markedly lower than that of those that run on diesel. A study from the 1980s found that electrification had an “economic advantage” over diesel, with a 19 percent pre-tax rate of return on electrifying 29,000 miles of US mainlines. Additionally, it is more than 50 percent cheaper to power a train on electricity than on diesel, especially considering current price hikes. Plus, with regenerative braking and catenaries, when trains are going downhill or slowing, they can sell power back to the grid.

By Alexandra Martinez - Prism, March 7, 2023

Railroad workers point to corporate greed as the root cause of the recent influx of dangerous train derailments:

Over a dozen trains have derailed across the U.S. in fewer than three months. On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing multiple explosions, toxic chemical leaks, and controlled burns that left an ecological disaster in its wake. Most recently, a train derailed in Sarasota, Florida, on Feb. 28, tipping over six railcars—one of which contained 30,000 gallons of liquid propane gas. Just this weekend, on March 4, yet another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Springfield, Ohio, sending 28 cars sliding across the tracks. While neither the Sarasota nor the second Norfolk Southern derailments caused the same level of destruction as the one in East Palestine, railroad workers warn that derailments will continue to occur if the industry continues to prioritize profit over safer labor conditions for workers.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report on Feb. 23 revealing a wheel bearing on the first railcar that derailed had been in the “final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment.” In a press conference announcing the report, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the East Palestine derailment was “100% preventable … There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable.” Since the incident, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered Norfolk Southern to remedy the situation and clean up the damage.

In a press release, Railroad Workers United (RWU)—an inter-union, cross-craft solidarity “caucus” of railroad workers and their supporters from all crafts, carriers, and unions across North America—said that Class One freight rail carriers, including Norfolk Southern, have prioritized profits over safety, cutting maintenance, equipment inspections, and personnel in all crafts while increasing the average train size to three miles or more.

“Every day we go to work, we have serious concerns about preventing accidents like the one that occurred in Ohio,” said RWU General Secretary Jason Doering in the press release. “As locomotive engineers, conductors, signal maintainers, car inspectors, track workers, dispatchers, machinists, and electricians, we experience the reality that our jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous due to insufficient staffing, inadequate maintenance, and a lack of oversight and inspection. We recognize that limits on train lengths and weights are necessary to prevent catastrophic derailments.”

According to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis, there are over 1,000 train derailments every year. Railroad workers say the corporate greed that plagues their industry has led to fewer safety measures and reduced staffing, resulting in derailments and other catastrophes. 

By Union Jake and Adam - Valley Labor Report, March 3, 2023

By Union Jake and Adam - Valley Labor Report, March 2, 2023

By Union Jake and Adam - Valley Labor Report, March 1, 2023

By Steering Committee - Railroad Workers United, March 1, 2023

Whereas rail carriers have consistently over the years increased the size of trains while disregarding the limitations of technology and infrastructure largely unimproved for decades; and

Whereas longer, heavier trains create much higher buff and draft forces during, what would otherwise be a minor derailment event, which can then lead to a major catastrophic event; and

Whereas many potential problems cannot be identified and corrected by the onboard crew due of the length of these trains; and

Whereas these trains carry cargo that carries the potential to cause mass casualty events due to their volatility and toxicity; and

Whereas the US rail industry has spent far more on share buyback programs every year than on the infrastructure expected to handle these long, dangerous trains; and

Whereas the railroads have drastically cut car repair staff, creating shorter and less thorough inspections of the rail cars expected to be handled in these long, dangerous trains; and

Whereas the railroad industry has actively worked to eliminate regulation which would have required a more modern braking system to reduce in-train-forces in a derailment, as well as in daily operations; and

Whereas the reliability and effectiveness of the conventional braking system trains use is reduced greatly when it is subjected to excessive train lengths, especially in cold weather; and

Whereas the railroads have shown zero regard for public safety or inconvenience at crossings, while conducting unregulated experiments on our communities by running trains of essentially unlimited length; and

Whereas railroads effectively surrendered any regulatory autonomy when they merged to become regulated monopolies subject to common carrier obligations;

Therefore be it Resolved, that RWU demands that railroad safety regulators act immediately to set temporary maximum safe train lengths, that account for dangerous slack events occurring during a derailment, as well as to significantly reduce such incidents; and

Be it Further Resolved that RWU demands that a set of permanent train length regulations be implemented within a reasonable time which establishes federal safe train lengths for conventional, DPU, Hazmat, ECP and Non-ECP brake equipped trains; and

Be it Finally Resolved that RWU demands that regulators establish a permanent regulation that requires trains defined as “Key Trains” under hazardous material regulations to be equipped with operative ECP braking systems.

Adopted by the RWU Steering Committee 3/1/2023

Download a copy of this resolution here (PDF).

By Carl Rosen, Scott Slawson, mark! Lopez, Ivette Torres, Yvette Arellano, and Bill Moyer - Solutionary Rail, March 1, 2023