Thu, March 9, 2023
March 9 (Reuters) - A group representing major railroads on Thursday warned carriers to stop using some rail cars with loose wheels until those wheel sets can be replaced.
The Association of American Railroads said Norfolk Southern had identified loose wheels on a series of cars that present an increased risk of an out of gage derailment. The group said it was "an uncommon defect to see in a wheelset that demanded urgent action."
"This is a safety win where the industry is taking action without regulation," National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a Reuters interview.
She said the NTSB was investigating a new derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in Alabama on Thursday because it may have had two of those cars with potentially loose wheels.
(Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese)
Trains keep derailing all over the country, including Thursday in Alabama. What's going on?
Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
Thu, March 9, 2023
DENVER – Since a fiery Ohio derailment on Feb. 3, trains have derailed in Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma and Nebraska. On Thursday a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama, and another one hit a dump truck on Tuesday in Cleveland, killing a contractor.
Data shows these derailments are not unusual.
Every day, the nation's railroads move millions of tons of raw materials and finished goods around the country on about 140,000 miles of rails, but their safety record is getting new attention amid the ongoing scrutiny of the East Palestine derailment disaster.
Federal data from 2021 and 2022 says an average of about three trains derail in the U.S. a day. While not all derailments are equally as dramatic or dangerous, railroads are required to report any derailment that causes more than $10,700 in damage.
WATCH: Norfolk Southern CEO apologizes, vows to clean up after Ohio train derailment
VIDEO: Rockslide derails West Virginia train, 3 injured
Although that number isn't as bad as it used to be, there's now a growing push for tougher safety regulations, including a new bi-partisan proposal in Congress aimed at improving rail safety. Railroad workers say large freight railroads have been skimping on maintenance, repairs and staffing in order to squeeze out higher profits.
"No American family should be forced to face the horror of fleeing their homes because hazardous materials have spilled or caught fire in their community," said the bill's sponsors, Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and JD Vance, a Republican. "Americans are now rightfully concerned about the safety of railroads carrying hazardous materials as trains travel through their communities."
How often do trains derail in the US?
According to federal records, trains derailed 1,164 times last year, and 1,095 times in 2021. That's a significant improvement from past decades. In 1979, for instance, railroads reported 7,482 derailments, and reported 6,442 in 1980.
Today, the majority of those derailments happen in freight yards. Because the cars on yards are frequently being switched between tracks, there's a greater chance of derailing, experts told USA TODAY.
NEWS: Second Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio shines congressional spotlight on rail industry
EXPLAINED: Just how dangerous is the Ohio derailment disaster? Why it's confusing.
"About 60% of all rail accidents occur in yards where there are more complex operations and lower speeds that tend to cause minimal damage," said Jessica Kahanek, a spokesperson for the Association of American Railroads, a trade group. "More than half of those are caused by human factors or human error."
Railroads are required to report any derailment that causes more than $10,700 in damage.
How often do hazmat crashes happen?
While most train derailments and crashes are relatively harmless, hazardous materials have spilled or leaked from trains more than 5,000 times in the United States in the past decade, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal incident reports. In comparison, there were 67 hazmat leaks from highway transportation for every last year, according to federal records.
DATA: How often do train wrecks spill hazardous chemicals into neighborhoods?
Still, in 2022 alone, rail operators reported 337 hazardous material leaks or spills, only 32 of which were classified as "serious." Only six were reported to have caused an injury. Railroad derailments counted for 1 in 10 hazmat wrecks in the last decade – and 1 in 4 of those incidents last year, USA TODAY found.
AAR, the trade group, says that 99.9% of all hazmat shipments reach their destination without incident and that the hazmat accident rate has declined 55% since 2012.
What about passenger trains?
Passenger trains such as Amtrak also experience derailments. In June 2022, an Amtrak train crashed in central Missouri, killing four people after colliding with a dump truck. And in September 2021, Amtrak’s Empire Builder derailed in northern Montana, killing three people. The causes of both crashes remain under investigation.
Last year, railroad deaths totaled 978, the highest since 2007, according to the National Safety Council. Most of those deaths were not derailments or crashes, but instead people killed while trespassing on train tracks. Seven passengers were killed last year, compared to 11 railroad employees.
Railroad safety bill proposed
Introduced on March 1, the Bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023 aims to increase train safety while ensuring communities get the help they need to deal with hazardous materials spills when they happen. President Joe Biden has already endorsed the legislation.
Specifically, the bill:
Dramatically increases fines for safety violations, raising them from a maximum of $225,000 to up to 1% of a railroad’s annual operating income, which for the largest carriers like Norfolk Southern could be more than $50 million.
Mandates railroads pay for more hazmat response training in communities where trains roll through.
Mandates "hotbox" detectors" every 10 miles to remotely sense if a passing train's wheels are getting too hot, which federal experts say is what caused the East Palestine derailment.
Requires two-person conductor-engineer crews on most freight train routes
Funds research into safer tank cars that are less likely to spill or leak
"This legislation provides us with tools to hold companies accountable to prevent terrible tragedies like the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and to make those communities whole," Biden said.
Contributing: Tami Abdollah, Jayne Fraser, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Rail expert: 'The freight industry has become a mess'
Dylan Croll
Wed, March 8, 2023
‘The freight industry has become a mess,’ fmr. U.S. representative says
In a Yahoo Finance interview on the Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) train derailments, Former Oregon Congressman and House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio insisted it’s high time the United States update its freight system.
“This industry needs to enter into the 21st century. They won't do it willingly because it might hurt their stock price if they made these safety investments,” DeFazio recently said (video above). “So the feds are gonna have to push them.”
Early last month, a train derailed East Palestine, Ohio, exposing nearby residents to toxic chemicals. Then, a second Norfolk Southern train derailed in Springfield, Ohio. The company said that no toxic chemicals were released in the second crash.
Darrell Wilson, assistant vice president government relations of Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the train involved in the derailment that spilled toxic chemicals, speaks during a town hall held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., March 2, 2023. REUTERS/Alan Freed
Defazio explained that the accidents stem from “precision scheduled railroading,” in which companies run trains of excessive lengths while cutting back on maintenance crews.
“It's been something that I've been critical about for about a decade, and it's time that the feds, both at the Federal Railroad Administration and the Surface Transportation Board, were given new tools by Congress to rein in what's going on in this industry,” DeFazio said. “The freight industry has become a mess.”
In response to the accidents, Norfolk Southern released a six-point safety plan that listed several ways the company plans to improve freight line safety. Such initiatives included several ways to to improve hot bearing detectors, devices that use signal dysfunction in railcar components.
But Defazio, who retired from Congress last year, argued that hot bearing detectors were insufficient for preventing derailments.
“We're using very primitive technology here. The braking system was invented in the Civil War era. You know, the hot-box detectors to find failing wheel bearings are not regulated, and they're quite primitive,” Defazio said. “You should have vibration detectors, real-time vibration detectors which could get bearings long before they're getting to the point of failure, so you wouldn't have these massive derailments.”
As recently reported by CNN, a 2019 study funded by the Department of Transportation found that measuring both vibration and temperature was the optimal way to avoid accidents.
Last year DeFazio introduced a bill, called the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act. The bill would have increased the authority of Surface Transportation Board (a federal agency that is responsible for regulating the freight rail system) and helped them improve safety on the freight lines, according to Defazio.
He also said the bill help would have helped the economy by lowering consumer costs. The bill would have curbed rail rate increases, which force customers to pay more, among other provisions. DeFazio asserted that the legislation failed to garner support from Republicans.
“So Congress should begin with some really strong oversight and then pass legislation in both those areas to help the administration deal with this,” he said. “Right now the administration doesn't have the greatest tools.”
Dylan Croll is a reporter and researcher at Yahoo Finance.
Dylan Croll
Wed, March 8, 2023
‘The freight industry has become a mess,’ fmr. U.S. representative says
In a Yahoo Finance interview on the Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) train derailments, Former Oregon Congressman and House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio insisted it’s high time the United States update its freight system.
“This industry needs to enter into the 21st century. They won't do it willingly because it might hurt their stock price if they made these safety investments,” DeFazio recently said (video above). “So the feds are gonna have to push them.”
Early last month, a train derailed East Palestine, Ohio, exposing nearby residents to toxic chemicals. Then, a second Norfolk Southern train derailed in Springfield, Ohio. The company said that no toxic chemicals were released in the second crash.
Darrell Wilson, assistant vice president government relations of Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the train involved in the derailment that spilled toxic chemicals, speaks during a town hall held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., March 2, 2023. REUTERS/Alan Freed
Defazio explained that the accidents stem from “precision scheduled railroading,” in which companies run trains of excessive lengths while cutting back on maintenance crews.
“It's been something that I've been critical about for about a decade, and it's time that the feds, both at the Federal Railroad Administration and the Surface Transportation Board, were given new tools by Congress to rein in what's going on in this industry,” DeFazio said. “The freight industry has become a mess.”
In response to the accidents, Norfolk Southern released a six-point safety plan that listed several ways the company plans to improve freight line safety. Such initiatives included several ways to to improve hot bearing detectors, devices that use signal dysfunction in railcar components.
But Defazio, who retired from Congress last year, argued that hot bearing detectors were insufficient for preventing derailments.
“We're using very primitive technology here. The braking system was invented in the Civil War era. You know, the hot-box detectors to find failing wheel bearings are not regulated, and they're quite primitive,” Defazio said. “You should have vibration detectors, real-time vibration detectors which could get bearings long before they're getting to the point of failure, so you wouldn't have these massive derailments.”
As recently reported by CNN, a 2019 study funded by the Department of Transportation found that measuring both vibration and temperature was the optimal way to avoid accidents.
Last year DeFazio introduced a bill, called the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act. The bill would have increased the authority of Surface Transportation Board (a federal agency that is responsible for regulating the freight rail system) and helped them improve safety on the freight lines, according to Defazio.
He also said the bill help would have helped the economy by lowering consumer costs. The bill would have curbed rail rate increases, which force customers to pay more, among other provisions. DeFazio asserted that the legislation failed to garner support from Republicans.
“So Congress should begin with some really strong oversight and then pass legislation in both those areas to help the administration deal with this,” he said. “Right now the administration doesn't have the greatest tools.”
Dylan Croll is a reporter and researcher at Yahoo Finance.
