A new bill was filed in the Virginia General Assembly to potentially improve safety conditions for railroad workers and citizens in Hampton Roads.
The proposed bill, filed by State Delegate representing Virginia's 94th District, Shelly Simonds, proposes three major requirements for railroad companies.
The first, and arguably most important to railway workers, requires every train be operated by two-person crew.
Ronnie Hobbs, a Virginia beach resident who has been spending much of his recent time in Washington, DC as the Legislative Director for SMART, a major railway workers union, says a two-person crew is vital for worker and citizen safety. Hobbs adds that this is especially important following legislation passed in December of 2022 that prevented a potential railroad worker strike but did not include many of the changes employees requested, like paid sick leave.
"Now that workers are, more or less, being forced to come into work when they're sick, can you imagine if something should happen? If somebody is on the train and one of them medically goes down, who is going to be the next guy up?" asked Hobbs.
This issue hits particularly close to home for Hobbs, who says he himself performed life-saving measures on a fellow crewman during a railroad accident a few years back.
"He had an accident on the railroad and I was the guy on that train that went down there and was able to render first aid to him so he could get back to the hospital," explained Hobbs. "And he's lost his leg but he survived."
Some railroad companies argue that due to increased automation of trains, two-persons rews are no longer necessary. Delegate Simonds says this poses vital safety concerns and is one of the reasons she filed the bill.
"There's a lot of automation going on in the railroad industry but it's people that save each other's lives," she said.
Two years ago near Richmond, Hobbs says a man died while operating a train on his own, and may have been saved had he been working with another crewman.
"A father, a brother, did not come home that day," said Hobbs. "And we still don't know all the answers as to how long he laid there with no one knowing he was injured and he passed away."
Similarly, Hobbs says a two-person crew can disassemble train cars during an emergency. For example, if a train is stopped and blocking a crossing in which an emergency vehicle
needs to get through, one person can watch the train while another unlinks cars to let the vehicle through.
"We cannot block these crossings," said Hobbs.
This, leading the proposed bill to also require a maximum length for trains. Simonds and Hobbs say trains can now be as long as three miles, leading to hours-long back ups. The bill proposes a maximum length of 8,500 feet, or about 1.5 miles.
"This is not about jobs, it's not bout raises, it's not about healthcare, it's about everybody that we operate in their city and their communities that we provide the safest service possible," said Hobbs.
Lastly, the proposed bill aims to hold railroad companies accountable by requiring the removal of debris on pathways and walkways on either side of the train. This would also make it illegal for companies to place stationary cars or trains on the track within a 1,500 ft distance of any crossing, as to not obstruct the view of train operators.
Both Hobbs and Simonds are hoping for bipartisan support on this bill.
"Virginians are really hyperaware now of how important railroad workers and railroads are to the state economy," said Simonds.
"I am asking, I am begging, Governor Youngkin to push this through," added Hobbs.
The bill will now head to the General Assembly which is set to reconvene next week.
