By: Cain S.B. No. 1098
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to crew requirements for railroads.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Article 6380, Revised Statutes, is amended to
1-4 read as follows:
1-5 Art. 6380. FULL CREW. (a) For the purposes of this
1-6 article, a person is a qualified engineer or qualified railroad
1-7 conductor if the person has successfully completed a railroad
1-8 carrier's training program applicable to the appropriate position
1-9 and passed an examination on railroad operating rules.
1-10 (b) No railroad company or receiver of any railroad company
1-11 doing business in this State shall run over its road, or part of
1-12 its road, outside of the yard limits:
1-13 (1) any [1. Any] passenger train with less than a
1-14 full passenger crew consisting of four persons: one engineer, one
1-15 fireman, one conductor, and one brakeman;[.]
1-16 (2) any [2. Any] freight train, gravel train, mixed
1-17 train, work train, or construction train with less than a full crew
1-18 consisting of two [five] persons: one qualified railroad
1-19 [engineer, one fireman, one] conductor and one qualified engineer;
1-20 or
1-21 (3) any [two brakemen.]
1-22 [3. Any] light engine with less than [without] a full
1-23 [train] crew consisting of two [three] persons: one qualified
1-24 engineer[, one fireman] and one qualified railroad conductor.
2-1 (c) [4.] The provisions of this article shall not apply to
2-2 a designated service or repair track when that repair track is
2-3 protected by switch locks, blue flags, and derails and the movement
2-4 will not consist of occupying a main track [nor include any
2-5 railroad company or receiver thereof, of any line of railroad in
2-6 this State, less than twenty miles in length; and nothing in
2-7 subdivisions one and two hereof shall apply in case of disability
2-8 of one or more of any train crew while out on the road between
2-9 division terminals, or to switching crews in charge of yard
2-10 engines, or which may be required to push trains out of the yard
2-11 limits].
2-12 (d) The control locomotive of a train described under
2-13 Subsection (b)(2) of this article shall be operated by a qualified
2-14 engineer at any time the locomotive is in motion. A qualified
2-15 railroad conductor on a train described under Subsection (b)(2) of
2-16 this article may dismount the train to perform necessary job
2-17 duties, including rail switching activities.
2-18 (e) Nothing in this article shall prevent the railroads from
2-19 operating with crews consisting of more than two persons.
2-20 (f) This article applies to all trains operated in this
2-21 State to the extent that it does not conflict with federal law.
2-22 (g) Any such company or receiver which shall violate any
2-23 provision of this article shall be liable to this State for a
2-24 penalty of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand
2-25 dollars for each offense. Suit for such penalty shall be brought
2-26 in Travis County or in any county in or through which such line of
3-1 railroad may run, by the Attorney General, or under his direction,
3-2 or by the county or district attorney in any county in or through
3-3 which such railroad may be operated. Such suits shall be subject
3-4 to the provisions of Article 6477.
3-5 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-6 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.