By Rhiannon Hoyle
SYDNEY -- Mining giant Rio Tinto PLC calls it the world's
largest robot: mile-long driverless trains traversing the sparsely
populated Australian Outback on roughly 1,000 miles of track.
American railroad companies, seeking to boost network efficiencies,
call it the future.
U.S. rail-freight operators say greater automation will make
their networks safer and more productive. They point to railroads
owned by Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto as a blueprint for the
140,000-mile private U.S. network that moves vast quantities of
everything from cars to corn.
A decade in the making, Rio Tinto's driverless train system,
called AutoHaul, now manages roughly 200 locomotives that move iron
ore from inland mines to coastal ports in Western Australia. The
trains are operated hundreds of miles away, in an office block in
Perth.
Rio Tinto's network, which began formally operating in
driverless mode late last month, is the first fully autonomous,
long-haul freight railroad. Rail-company executives from countries
including the U.S. and Canada have visited to see the technology in
action, said Ivan Vella, Rio Tinto's head of iron-ore rail
services.
American companies say automating tasks once handled by crew
will create fluid networks more akin to a model train set. Around 5
million tons of goods are moved daily on the U.S. network, which
freight operators share with passenger trains, generating more than
$70 billion in revenue annually.
Drivers have variable skills, so a generous distance is kept
between trains. In doing so, companies sacrifice valuable rail
capacity. Also, the different ways that drivers run locomotives
lead to inconsistent wear-and-tear and fuel use, while human error
accounts for more than one-third of accidents, according to the
Association of American Railroads, an industry trade group.
Last November, miner BHP Group Ltd. was forced to derail a
268-wagon runaway train in Australia's Pilbara region, the origin
of half the world's iron-ore exports. The train rolled away after
its driver disembarked to inspect a wagon and failed to secure the
brake.
Labor unions and some lawmakers worry about risks to public
safety, cyber threats and job cuts from increased automation.
Rail-freight companies have typically offered some of the nation's
best-paid jobs, with an average annual salary of more than
$125,000, said the AAR, which represents most major railroads. The
country's biggest Class I railroads employed roughly 147,000 people
in 2017.
"Americans want a rail network and a transportation system that
serves the people, not one that simply makes money for stockholders
by eliminating good jobs and quality rail service," Railroad
Workers United, a coalition of unions, said in a statement
submitted last year to the Federal Railroad Administration, which
was seeking comments on the future of automation in the industry.
RWU opposes crews of fewer than two people.
Reaching a consensus among companies, unions and regulators on
how many drivers, if any, should remain on board will likely take a
long time, said CSX Corp. Chief Executive James Foote.
U.S. rail-freight operators, whose trains are typically staffed
by a conductor and engineer, say the goal isn't to do away with
drivers immediately. They contend there are many steps to reach the
sort of driverless network Rio Tinto has created, although a shift
toward more one-person crews is anticipated as new technologies are
implemented.
"The lack of certainty makes investments in technology and
innovation cautious endeavors that result in small gains, not leaps
forward," the AAR said in a filing to the Federal Railroad
Administration last month.
Today, efforts to advance automation are being held back by
regulations that haven't kept pace with technological change,
executives say. They fear falling behind as vehicle makers develop
self-driving cars and autonomous trucks.
The Transportation Department released guidelines on autonomous
vehicles in October, but didn't address autonomous trains in
detail.
Existing regulations typically dictate that tasks such as track
inspections be conducted by people. Operators say this could be
done better using an automated system.
The AAR has urged transport officials to grant waivers on what
it says are outdated rules and allow railroads and manufacturers to
create voluntary standards for safety technology, where possible.
The Federal Railroad Administration was unable to comment because
of the continuing government shutdown.
The 200-year-old industry has spent most of the past decade
developing positive train control technology, designed to
automatically stop a train to prevent collisions. That system,
which uses GPS information and track data, has created a platform
to operate trains more independently.
"The Rio Tinto example clearly shows the technology is here,"
said John Scheib, chief legal officer at Norfolk Southern Corp. "It
shows that our regulator needs to move more quickly to open the
doors to such technologies," he said.
Rio Tinto's trains complete an average return journey of 500
miles in 40 hours. Previously, the miner had to shuttle nearly 100
drivers around these scrubby outlands to switch train drivers three
times for each journey. That totaled almost a million miles a year
and the changeovers added more than an hour to each return train
trip.
Today, a train controller at its Perth operations center sets
the route, then computers both at the center and on-board take over
to make decisions. Before the system was set up, the miner faced
repeated setbacks. The project ran three years late and to almost
double the original budget.
"What AutoHaul does," though, "is drive it better than the best
driver, every time," Mr. Vella said.
Of course, there are many people in Australia "who love driving
trains [and] they are disappointed they don't get to drive trains
anymore," he said. "We are trying to give them alternatives."
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 19, 2019 08:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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