REFERENCE TITLE: urging Congress; safe freight act

State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-second Legislature Second Regular Session 2016

HCM 2011

Introduced by Representatives Larkin, Alston, Andrade, Cardenas, Meyer, Saldate: Bolding, Borrelli, Bowers, Campbell, Clark, Cobb, Espinoza, Fernandez, Finchem, Friese, Gonzales, Kopec, Lawrence, Livingston, McCune Davis, Mendez, Mitchell, Otondo, Plumlee, Rivero, Thorpe, Velasquez, Weninger

 

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

 

urging the Congress of the United States to enact the Safe Freight Act.

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

To the Congress of the United States of America:

      Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, the United States has 277,722 highway-rail crossings and more than 145,000 miles of track; and

Whereas, Arizona currently has over 490 public crossings and about 3,000 railroad miles; and

Whereas, approximately 75 trains operate in Arizona in a twenty‑four‑hour period; and

Whereas, Arizona's railroad network is composed of two Class I railroads, the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific, a number of short line, terminal, industrial, switching, passenger and tourist railroads, and one single-purpose, coal-hauling railroad, the Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, which, unlike every other Arizona railroad, is isolated and not connected to the nationwide railroad system; and

Whereas, Arizona's railroads originate five million tons of freight railroad traffic from locations within Arizona, including glass and stone products, waste and scrap, primary metal products, chemicals and metallic ores; and

Whereas, Arizona's freight railroads bring to Arizona and terminate within the state almost 31 million tons of freight traffic, including coal, lumber and wood products, glass and stone products, farm products and food products; and

Whereas, several major train derailments have occurred recently, most notably the oil train derailment and explosion near Charleston, West Virginia in February 2015; and

Whereas, on July 6, 2013, a train that was operated by a single crew member and that was carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, resulting in 47 fatalities and the destruction of the town's center and sparking concerns over freight train crew sizes; and

Whereas, multi-person crews are essential to ensuring the safest rail operations possible; and

Whereas, the Safe Freight Act prohibits the operation of a freight train or light locomotive engine used in the movement of freight unless it has a crew of at least two individuals, one of whom is certified by the Federal Rail Administration as a locomotive operator and the other as a train conductor.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1.  That the Congress of the United States enact the Safe Freight Act.

2.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.