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ATLANTA –– From the October 2024 Issue of RT&S –– As I write this, I have just returned from the annual AREMA Conference in Louisville, Ky. While the conference was excellent, as usual, one session really caught my attention –– one on Emerging Technologies during the Monday morning general session.

Commentary

Automation Often Creates As Many or More Jobs Than It Eliminates

One of the themes of this discussion focused on automation and its impact on jobs. The traditional wisdom, which has proven to be the case on several occasions, is that jobs are lost when automated processes or some other new technology is introduced. Perhaps the most significant example in the history of the rail industry is the transfer from steam power to diesel and the resulting reduction of locomotive maintenance personnel. Most will recall that steam locomotives were complex machines, requiring a wide variety of attention, from keeping the coal and water tenders full to regular oiling of the valve gear during a run. When diesels came along, with their relatively simple daily maintenance needs, the number of railroad workers needed to keep the fleet going dropped significantly. 

Many of the technological changes in the rail industry today focus on the gathering and processing of data to provide information on the status of equipment and other elements of the infrastructure. For example, automated track inspection that utilizes equipment mounted to locomotives or in special freight cars are being tested and used. While this reduces the number of personnel needed to visually inspect the track, people are still needed to interpret the results. As one panel member put it, “Computer technology only presents facts and information. If it identifies a problem, it doesn’t tell you how the problem occurred or what needs to be done to fix it. It takes the human brain to do that.” Panelists also pointed out that they are being inundated with data of all kinds and they are in the process of learning which data is most important to target specific problems. 

Additionally, automated inspection cars have enabled one railroad to go from inspecting around 50,000 miles of track per year with traditional crewed, rail-bound geometry cars to covering about 115,000 miles per year with automated equipment. Of course, inspecting this much additional track is going to increase the workload of those who need to interpret the data, so people who usually crewed geometry cars will have a lot more data to evaluate. Indeed, one panel member put it, “Computer technology only presents facts and information. If it identifies a problem, it doesn’t tell you how the problem occurred or what needs to be done to fix it. It takes the human brain to do that.” Panelists also pointed out that they are being inundated with data of all kinds and they are in the process of learning which data is most important to target specific problems. 

Additionally, automated inspection cars have enabled one railroad to go from inspecting around 50,000 miles of track per year with traditional crewed, rail-bound geometry cars to covering about 115,000 miles per year with automated equipment. Of course, inspecting this much additional track is going to increase the workload of those who need to interpret the data, so people who usually crewed geometry cars will have a lot more data to evaluate. Indeed, anagement and labor members and leadership working together, chances are very good that many of those “lost” jobs can be replaced with openings created by directly or indirectly by automation. Losing one’s job for any reason is devastating and frightening. With smart thinking, though, railroad leadership can develop plans to ensure that automation is not a big reason for job loss.