Federal Law only allows train crews to operate up to 12 hours of on duty time. Yet railroads will run crews until they are out of hours and then leave them on duty for several more hours before they are able to complete their trip at their home terminal or their away from home terminal. This time is considered limbo time and is often uncompensated time. The RSIA (Rail Safety Improvement Act 2008) aimed to reduce the number of hours of limbo time railroad employees could work per month. It is my humble opinion that this has done nothing to curb the railroads from continuing the practice of not getting crews to the other terminal within 12 hours. If the railroads were required to pay overtime pay after 12 hours, regardless of miles worked, employees would at least be paid for their time.
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
