Train engineers want feds to require SEPTA to follow fatigue safety rules

Regional Rail engineers have asked federal regulators to require SEPTA to follow a safety rule designed to limit fatigue.

SEPTA wants the Federal Railroad Administration to renew a waiver that the transit agency has had from the work rule for two years.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen asked the federal agency to deny SEPTA's request and hold a public hearing on the issue, citing accidents at other railroads caused by fatigued engineers.

A sleep-deprived engineer was blamed for a fatal accident in New York last year in which a Metro-North Railroad train derailed while taking a 30 m.p.h. curve at 82 m.p.h., killing four people and injuring more than 70.

"The industry has witnessed the inevitable and undesirable outcome that occurs when an operation favors a culture that prioritizes productivity before safety," union president Dennis Pierce wrote to the Federal Railroad Administration. "The recent series of accidents at Metro-North was preceded by a culture that placed productivity ahead of safety policy."

"SEPTA has taken a similar course on productivity by avoiding compliance" with the safety rule, Pierce said.

None of SEPTA's 200 engineers works a 40-hour week. Most work six-day weeks, with the typical engineer working about 67 hours per week. The Federal Railroad Administration requires two days off every 14 days.

Many engineers count on thousands of dollars in overtime each year, and the union did not object in 2012 when SEPTA first sought the waiver after the Federal Railroad Administration tightened hours-of-service regulations.

The federal agency rule in dispute involves the time employees spend traveling from home to start work somewhere other than their usual assigned location.

The rule requires that time to be counted as paid work time; SEPTA has been granted a waiver from that rule since 2012, allowing it to reduce some engineers' paid hours and keep them from exceeding work-hour limits.

SEPTA said the waiver was "in the best interests of the riding public from both a service (more employees available for duty to address service demands) and economic standpoint (reduced labor costs by eliminating a potential need to hire additional employees)."

"Maintaining tight controls on labor expenses and operating expenses is one way SEPTA manages to fulfill that obligation [to operate efficiently]," SEPTA said in its request for the waiver extension.

"SEPTA estimates one additional crew costs approximately $150,000 annually, so even one new employee could cost SEPTA hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor expenses in a relatively short period of time."

The union cited four incidents between Aug. 6 and Oct. 7 on SEPTA tracks in which engineers violated safety rules, prompting the Federal Railroad Administration to launch an investigation after characterizing them as "not a coincidence."

"The alarming number of non-coincidental events in such a short time window is another indication that the overall culture at SEPTA is trending toward the border of minimum safety standards," Pierce wrote.

SEPTA officials said none of the incidents appeared to involve fatigue or overwork issues, as the engineers involved had recently returned from time-off periods ranging from 28 to 52 hours.

"We take safety very seriously," said deputy general manager Jeffrey Knueppel. "We're looking at all of the events, and we're not finding anything to suggest we have a fatigue problem."

"SEPTA employs a fatigue-analysis model that governs our actions regarding crew assignments," Knueppel said. SEPTA also has increased training classes to try to boost its number of engineers, Knueppel said.

SEPTA needs 213 engineers to be fully staffed, but typically operates with between 192 and 200. Because of retirements and other attrition, SEPTA is losing about one engineer per month.

Thirteen people are in the current training class for engineers, 10 more are to start training in January, and an additional 10 next spring.

If SEPTA were able to operate with 213 engineers, it could reduce the number of six-day runs from 72 percent of the total to 40 percent, said Ronald Hopkins, SEPTA assistant general manager of operations.