Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says the state has now implemented a rule mandating two-person crews at minimum for lead locomotives in trains moving across the state.
In May, the governor directed the Kansas Department of Transportation to propose the two-person requirement. That started a 60-day public comment period.
Governor Kelly says several organizations support the new rule, including the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. She also says this is a needed safety measure with Kansas in the top half of th ccountry when it comes to highway-rail grade crossing crashes, resulting in five deaths and 14 injuries just last year. Derailments, another concern, resulted in almost $10 million in damage last year.
Kansas becomes the 10th state in the country to mandate two-person crews on trains. Kelly says most railroads in Kansas already have two-person crews, so they should have no additional labor costs as a result of this new policy.
