FILE - A worker boards a locomotive at a BNSF rail yard Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Kansas City, Kan. Kansas became the tenth state in the nation Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, to require two-person railroad crews over the objections of the freight railroads, but the industry may challenge the rule in court as it has in other states like Ohio. FILE - A Union Pacific train crosses a country road near Perry, Kan., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005. Kansas became the tenth state in the nation Wednesday, Oct.
The railroad industry maintains there isn’t enough evidence to show that two-person crews are safer and many short-line railroads already operate with a single person aboard.“Regulatory efforts to mandate crew staffing such as the latest in Kansas lack a safety justification,” said spokesperson Jessica Kahanek with the Association of American Railroads trade group.