SMART Transportation Division’s Nebraska State Legislative Board today released the results of a survey that shows that likely voters strongly support freight trains being operated by a minimum of two-person crews.
Yet two-person crew freight rail legislation that would require most trains to operate with a minimum of two crew members has failed to emerge from the committee level in the state Legislature. The most recent effort (L.B. 404) was introduced in January 2017 by state Sens. Mike Groene (R – Dist. 42) and Tom Brewer (R – Dist. 43).
In the survey conducted October 23-27, 2018, when asked if they could vote on a statewide rail safety measure requiring a minimum of two people on a train crew, a clear majority (77 percent) of likely voters said they would back such a measure, while just 9 percent of respondents would vote against it.
“More than three of four respondents to this poll understand the risk of single-person operators on freight trains. Safety is a top priority for them and requiring all trains in the state to be operated by a crew of at least two people, no exceptions, makes perfect sense,” said Bob Borgeson, director of the SMART TD Nebraska State Legislative Board. “The serious safety risks posed by single-person freight train operations are well-documented. You need only look at the catastrophic Lac-Mégantic disaster in 2013 that devastated that town in Quebec and killed dozens.”
Nearly 80 percent of respondents also said that a one-person freight crew cannot operate a train as safely as a two-person crew, and 72 percent of them said that they would have at least some level of worry about a derailment if trains with one or no crew member were operating in their community.
The survey also showed that Nebraskans feel that the state’s infrastructure of roads, highways, bridges, rail, air and public transportation is at least “satisfactory.” A strong majority (74 percent) of respondents described the Cornhusker State infrastructure as either “satisfactory” or “good.”
When asked about U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R – 2nd Dist.), 52 percent of 2nd District voters said that they would vote for him, compared with 45 percent for his opponent, Kara Eastman (margin of error ±5.2 percentage points). The SMART TD Nebraska State Legislative Board has endorsed Bacon because of his support for the Safe Freight Act (H.R. 233), which would require two-person train crews across the nation.
The poll was of 683 random likely 2018 mid-term election voters using both cell phones and landlines by DFM Research of St. Paul, Minnesota. Total margin error of this poll is ±3.8 percentage points.
The SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members in Nebraska and throughout the United States of the former United Transportation Union, who work in a variety of different crafts in the transportation industry.