In 2023, a rumor began circulating through Houston’s 5th Ward: a migrant worker named Elin Javier Avila-Figueroa had been struck and killed by a Union Pacific train.
There was no news coverage, and no railroad reported hitting him. At the same time, residents were growing increasingly alarmed by a new form of rail traffic—locomotives operating without a human on board—moving through residential blocks and exploiting a regulatory loophole that made it nearly impossible to track fatal accidents.
These Remote-Controlled Locomotives (RCLs), often miles long and carrying toxic chemicals, are touted by railroads as safe. Industry leaders point to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) statistics suggesting RCLs are less prone to accidents than conventional trains. But rail worker unions strongly dispute that narrative, warning of heightened risks to pedestrians and vulnerable communities, and noting that when a fatal accident occurs, railroads are not required to indicate whether the train involved was unmanned.
These images, shot for The New York Times, focus on Houston’s 5th Ward, an industrial–residential neighborhood hemmed in by rail lines on all sides—one that may bear the greatest burden as RCL operations expand.
