U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., has introduced a train safety bill to make sure train conductors aren't exhausted on the job.
Delauro says her bill would require railroads to use a fatigue management plan, giving workers at least ten hours’ notice before reporting for shifts that can last up to 12 hours, and a defined start time.
“Workers don’t have an idea of when they are going to be asked to return to duty. It’s unfair to the workers and potentially life-threatening to them and to our commuters.”
Speaking at the West Haven Metro-North train station Wednesday morning, DeLauro says conductor fatigue contributed to the Metro-North crash in Harlem in 2013 that killed four and injured more than 60 people.
Francis Ariola says he is on-call six days a week as a train conductor for Amtrak.
“It’s very, very, very impossible to plan anything with the family when it comes to having to be there to answer the phone two hours prior to going to work. So at times, it does get very trying and I’m very fortunate I have an understanding family.”
Ariola supports the bill and says his train workers’ union, SMART-TD, supports DeLauro.
