Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

CLEVELAND, October 22 The BLET National Division is making available to its members several important documents regarding Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Emergency Order No. 26, which imposes restrictions on the use of personal cell phones by operating crews and bans the use of almost all other personal electronic devices while on duty.

The FRA published the Emergency Order on October 7 and it goes into effect on Monday, October 27.

The surest way for BLET members to avoid violating the Emergency Order or associated railroad rules is to turn off all such devices when you register for duty, stow them in your grip, and do not retrieve and activate them until you have been relieved from duty, BLET National President Ed Rodzwicz said.

The FRA issued Emergency Order 26 in response to the tragic Metrolink accident of September 12, 2008, which claimed the lives of 25 people and injured 135 more. In its accident investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that the locomotive engineer was using his cellular phone while on duty.

The following documents regarding the Emergency Order are now available on the BLET website:

Click here to view or download the Federal Register publication of FRA Emergency Order 26 in PDF format (7 pages):
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/EO26FR.pdf

Click here to view or download a FRA-prepared summary of EO 26 in PDF format (2 pages):
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/EO26Summary.pdf

Click here to view or download a FRA-prepared summary flowchart concerning EO 26 in PDF format (1 page):
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/EO26Chart081021.pdf


Click here to view or download a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) prepared by the National Legislative Office, which will be updated as necessary, in PDF format (2 pages):
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/EO26FAQs.pdf

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
bentley@ble.org