In a brand new letter to the freight railroads’ principal commerce group, Buttigieg acknowledged that railroads say they’re dedicated to security. He additionally gave them credit score for agreeing to supply paid sick time to just about 90% of their employees over the previous 12 months, and for investing in an intensive community of detectors and different expertise to assist forestall derailments.
However he stated too typically regulators encounter resistance when making an attempt to get the business to do extra to improve safety. And he stated the Federal Railroad Administration’s statistics don’t present security enhancing considerably over the previous decade.
“I want to enlist you in the project of rejecting, not defending, today’s status quo with its stagnant or worsening accident rates. The rate should be going down — and fast,” Buttigieg wrote within the letter to the Affiliation of American Railroads that was made public late Monday. He urged the commerce group to hitch with Congress and regulators to enhance security — not foyer in opposition to the reforms that had been proposed after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment in February 2023.
The latest statistics do present the entire variety of all accidents and the variety of derailments declining within the U.S. on the main freight railroads over the previous decade, however the quantity of rail site visitors can be down considerably over that point. When the space freight travels is factored in, the rate of accidents and derailments has worsened.
Railroads do have a remarkably safe track record — significantly better than vans — and the statistics present there are solely 2.1 derailments per each million miles freight travels on rail throughout the nation. However that also added as much as 938 derailments nationwide final 12 months. And because the Ohio derailment demonstrates, only one practice crash involving hazardous supplies will be disastrous.
The business additionally notes that greater than three-quarters of all derailments occur at sluggish speeds and don’t trigger vital harm. However Buttigieg stated that with two employees killed final 12 months in rail yard accidents he’s nonetheless involved about these incidents. Plus, he identified that an explosion at a Union Pacific rail yard final fall prompted evacuations in Nebraska.
The pinnacle of the AAR commerce group, Ian Jefferies, stated in his personal letter to Buttigieg final month that “railroads are wholeheartedly dedicated to advancing safety through our own initiatives and collaborative efforts with DOT.”
Jefferies famous the key freight railroads — which embrace Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Canadian Nationwide and CPKC — make investments billions yearly in upkeep, expertise and coaching to stop derailments.
However Buttigieg stated that the railroads have earned a fame lately of being so obsessive about short-term income that they neglect “other vital priorities like safety, long-term network development, customer service, worker wellbeing, and community engagement. When your industry objects to safety provisions, this perception deepens.”
The six largest railroads reported greater than $25 billion in profits final 12 months, at the same time as Norfolk Southern stated the East Palestine derailment response had value it more than $1.1 billion. Buttigieg stated that exhibits the business “is already extremely – some would say ridiculously – profitable.”
To realize these income, the railroads have minimize their workforce deeply, prompting unions to raise concerns about wanted upkeep being neglected and essential inspections being rushed. However the railroads counter that their security file hasn’t gotten significantly worse because of the modifications they’ve made to streamline their operations and make the perfect use of their employees and locomotives.
