[Townhall] In the spring of 2023, the so-called "Rail Safety Act" was introduced in Congress with the alleged purpose of improving freight rail safety. To 'do something' after the East Palestine derailment and vinyl chloride burn-off.
Despite its high-minded stated purpose, in reality it’s a Big Labor gift bag whose substance is costly, counterproductive and impractical.
The bill proposes a litany of new regulations, notably including mandatory new increased crew size requirements. Never mind that for years rail industry safety statistics have improved during a period of decreasing crew sizes due to safety measures that the industry has been implementing on its own.
In March 2023, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) released data proving exactly that point. Specifically, thanks to U.S. railroad’s commitment to safety and industry investments, train accident rates have dropped 28 percent since 2000, marking the last decade as its safest ever. The accident rate for Class I railroads, including CSX, Union Pacific, and BNSF, is down 49 percent since 2000, including a 63 percent drop in casualty rate per Class I railroad employee.
One supposes the AAR would make this information available to Mayor Pete,
Last year, for instance, Transportation Communications Union/IAM (TCU) President Don Grissom attempted to scapegoat freight rail following a tragic accident in Ohio. He claimed that freight rail failed to invest in an "automatic safety warning system" that cautions workers of oncoming trains.
The problem? That technology does not actually exist.
What does exist is a comprehensive array of operating rules to prevent incidents from occurring and to keep employees and communities safe.
According to its trade group, the freight rail industry collectively averages a staggering $23 billion a year in private investment into their networks. As just one illustration, in March of 2023, Jacksonville, Florida, based CSX announced that it was proactively installing an additional 53 hot bearing detectors across their network to better enable the railroad to detect overheated wheel bearings before accidents occur. Once CSX finishes that installation effort, it indicated those detectors will be in place every 14 to 15 miles along their routes.
IIRC, there was such a detector on the NS line near the East Palestine, Ohio disaster and the train was responding to the warning when the axle burned off. Two days later, local fire chief and the EPA agreed to the burn-off, which was the "environmental disaster" in all the headlines.
If and when "automatic warning system" technology is introduced, the rail industry’s previous record of investments demonstrate that freight rail companies will be the first in line to voluntarily fold it into their safety strategy. In the meantime, enlarging government bureaucracies and falsely maligning the rail industry will only make matters worse, not better.