News / New rail safety measures still in limbo a year after East Palestine derailment

Photo: Alan Stoddard, Dreamstime.com

The US rail carriers feel maligned by the federal minister in charge of their industry.

In a letter to transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has pushed back against comments he made last week ahead of the anniversary of the derailment of a Norfolk Southern (NS) train in East Palestine, which forced the evacuation of local residents because among the derailed rail cars were five carrying vinyl chloride, a highly toxic chemical.

Mr Buttigieg had lamented the lack of progress in the establishment of new safety standards in the wake of the accident and called on Congress to pass the bipartisan Railway Safety Act, introduced on Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the incident.

Reiterating the AAR’s mantra that rail is safer than other modes of transport, CEO Ian Jefferies wrote “it is so disheartening to hear those who know better misrepresent the industry’s safety record — and its continuing efforts to become even safer — in furtherance of their own agendas”.

He added: “Allowing misunderstandings about freight rail safety to go uncorrected undercuts public confidence, not only in the safety of one key component of our nation’s critical infrastructure, but also in your department.”

Efforts to tighten rail safety regulations have failed to make significant headway so far in both houses on Capitol Hill. Legislation introduced in the Senate has stalled, largely on the insistence of Republican lawmakers to await the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation report, expected May or July. It took the House of Representatives until last month to hold a rail safety hearing.

The inaction has stalled proposed mandates on train length and crew sizes, tighter regulations on  the carriage of hazardous chemicals and heightened powers for federal regulators to investigate and penalise violations.

Draft legislation has actually been watered down, according to reports from Washington.

It is no secret that the rail industry resents regulation. The AAR’s position is that the industry can regulate itself and is best positioned to do this, whereas critics view the East Palestine incident as an illustration that the industry has failed to self-regulate.

At a hearing last year on the East Palestine accident Mr Jefferies told lawmakers to be “wary of proposals motivated by politics”.

The AAR is also battling attempts at state level to introduce tighter safety regulations. Ohio’s state transport budget passed last March included a new rule requiring that freight rail carriers man trains with at least two crew members. The AAR has challenged this, arguing that state lawmakers cannot impose their own rules that exceed federal regulations because federal law alone governs these issues.

While labour unions and independent safety experts have called for a minimum crew size of two, the AAR is firmly opposed. At a federal hearing in December 2022, Michael Rush, the association’s SVP for safety and operations, told regulators there was “no evidence that two-person crews are safer than one-person crews”.

This argument is tied to a dispute over technology, where the carriers are at odds with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and labour unions. The carriers look to automated track inspections and the Trip Optimizer cruise-control system to enhance safety and operational efficiencies, whereas unions argued that their reliability is not proven. Moreover, they are worried that these could be used to cut jobs and boost profitability.

One of the few advances in the security debate has been NS’s move last month to join the FRA’s Close Call Reporting System, which is designed to allow railway employees to report any ‘close call’ incidents without fear of recrimination from their employer.

The FRA welcomed NS’s move and noted that none of the other Class I carriers had done so, despite pledges made last year.

While it has moved on this front and spent about $1bn on cleaning-up the derailment site in New Palestine, NS ramped up its lobbying efforts in Washington last year. According to one report, it spent $2.34m on lobbing the federal government, an increase of 30% over 2022.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the top five US rail carriers spent about $17m lobbying in Washington last year. There are no disclosure rules on which issues lobbyists discuss with lawmakers, what exactly they are trying to achieve and how much they spend on particular initiatives, but it would be surprising if safety legislation did not figure.

According to the Post, two of the biggest beneficiaries of lobbying largesse from the rail industry have been the leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Sam Graves, and Troy Nehls, who oversees the rail-focused sub-committee.ends