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Tag: freight railway

  • ‘You can’t sleep here:’ On board a perilous freight train with families hoping to reach the US | CNN

    ‘You can’t sleep here:’ On board a perilous freight train with families hoping to reach the US | CNN


    Aboard a train heading to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
    CNN
     — 

    On top of the rumbling freight train, the young man says he has been attacked and robbed. There is no shade from the burning sun in the day, nowhere to keep warm in the perishing cold of the night. But still, he says, this brutal journey is worth it.

    Roberto, 23, told CNN he was escaping from Honduras, where the US State Department says violent gang activity is rife and police are ineffective.

    “Due to crime in my country, we can’t work, we can’t do anything,” he said.

    Roberto is one of the tens of thousands of migrants who have been making the perilous journey to the US-Mexico border ahead of Thursday night’s expiration of the Covid-era immigration rule known as Title 42.

    Roberto fled the country with his two young children, he said, becoming emotional as he talked about them. “I brought them here to Mexico but they got sick, they almost died,” he said. “I had to send them back to Honduras.”

    Roberto was still sick himself, wearing a mask to protect others from his coughs. He said this was the seventh train he had ridden on top of in the past 12 days as he, his father and his sister tried to find a new life. His sister is 15, he said. In other circumstances, she would be celebrating her quinceañera at home with friends and family. But home, for now, was an open train car heading north.

    The truck contains metal construction beams, covered in plastic. There are a couple dozen people in this freight car alone, with dozens more riding on top of and within the other cars. The riders flatten cardboard boxes and use dirty clothing to try to give themselves some padding against the hard, uneven surface. But this is still the preferred kind of train car, as it at least offers some protection from falling off.

    A traveler rests on the cargo. There is no shelter from the sun, wind and nighttime cold, but these open trucks are preferred as they offer some protection from falling off.

    “You can’t sleep here,” Roberto said as he sat, buffeted by the wind, seemingly exhausted but determined as the train neared Ciudad Juarez, the town across the international border from El Paso.

    He, his sister and his father, plan to try to cross into the United States this same day. They believe they have no reason not to.

    The lifting of the US’s Title 42 pandemic-era immigration restriction on Thursday has raised concerns that more people will try to enter the United States. Title 42 allowed officials to quickly process people arriving and send many back across the border. The reinstatement of old rules may mean heavier legal penalties, but it is expected to be a longer process.

    But the people on the freight train are not talking about US rule changes. Those we spoke with had the singular goal of escaping their countries and starting again in the US, whatever process they had to follow.

    Crossing the border is as far as Felipe and Marcela have thought. The couple said they left Colombia, ready to sacrifice themselves for the five children they left behind.

    “We don’t know for sure,” Felipe replied when asked where they would go. “We need to get there first, that’s the priority. Once there, we can see what to do, because we don’t have friends, family, anyone who can take us in.”

    Felipe and Marcela have nowhere to go and no one to stay with in the US but they are hopeful they will be able to help the five children they had to leave in Colombia.

    They said they suffered in the heat and the cold, and were hungry and thirsty. But their worst fear was the threat of violence, especially to women.

    “The treatment of women is the worst and also dangerous,” Felipe said. “People get on the train, to look for women.” Marcela added: “Dangerous meaning rape, sometimes people get in looking for that.”

    Wind pummels the people in the rail car. Many, like Roberto, are sick and coughing. As the train passed what looked like an incinerator, there was the smell of burning trash and a massive plume of smoke. At other times, the smell of sewage is overwhelming.

    Travelers come from many different countries. We even met two from China.

    For some of them, this is not their first attempt to get into the US.

    Omar Zambrano said he left Venezuela six months ago to escape the crime and violence there, coupled with the economic crisis. “Living in Venezuela is chaotic. If you have breakfast, you don’t have enough money for lunch,” said Zambrano, a chef who said he would try any kind of work in the United States.

    He has the address of a friend in Baltimore along with a printout in Spanish of all the circumstances under which he would be allowed to stay in the US.

    He said he has tried and been sent back before. But he will try to cross the border again. “They ignore you when you’re trying to do it legally,” he said. “But let’s go for the legal way first to see what happens.”

    After clambering down from the final train stop, Zambrano picked up his small bookbag, containing all he has on the journey and prepares to head to the border crossing, walking or perhaps on a truck.

    “We are going to turn ourselves in, in the name of God,” he said, somehow wearing a smile under his sunglasses. “Faith moves mountains and you must not lose it.”

    Once the train stops, people still have 25 miles or so to make it through Ciudad Juarez and the US border leading to El Paso, Texas.

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  • High speed trains are racing across the world. But not in America | CNN

    High speed trains are racing across the world. But not in America | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    High speed trains have proved their worth across the world over the past 50 years.

    It’s not just in reducing journey times, but more importantly, it’s in driving economic growth, creating jobs and bringing communities closer together. China, Japan and Europe lead the way.

    So why doesn’t the United States have a high-speed rail network like those?

    For the richest and most economically successful nation on the planet, with an increasingly urbanized population of more than 300 million, it’s a position that is becoming more difficult to justify.

    Although Japan started the trend with its Shinkansen “Bullet Trains” in 1964, it was the advent of France’s TGV in the early 1980s that really kick-started a global high-speed train revolution that continues to gather pace.

    But it’s a revolution that has so far bypassed the United States. Americans are still almost entirely reliant on congested highways or the headache-inducing stress of an airport and airline network prone to meltdowns.

    China has built around 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) of dedicated high-speed railways since 2008 and plans to top 43,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) by 2035.

    Meanwhile, the United States has just 375 route-miles of track cleared for operation at more than 100 mph.

    “Many Americans have no concept of high-speed rail and fail to see its value. They are hopelessly stuck with a highway and airline mindset,” says William C. Vantuono, editor-in-chief of Railway Age, North America’s oldest railroad industry publication.

    Cars and airliners have dominated long-distance travel in the United States since the 1950s, rapidly usurping a network of luxurious passenger trains with evocative names such as “The Empire Builder,” “Super Chief” and “Silver Comet.”

    Deserted by Hollywood movie stars and business travelers, famous railroads such as the New York Central were largely bankrupt by the early 1970s, handing over their loss-making trains to Amtrak, the national passenger train operator founded in 1971.

    In the decades since that traumatic retrenchment, US freight railroads have largely flourished. Passenger rail seems to have been a very low priority for US lawmakers.

    Powerful airline, oil and auto industry lobbies in Washington have spent millions maintaining that superiority, but their position is weakening in the face of environmental concerns and worsening congestion.

    US President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill includes an unprecedented $170 billion for improving railroads.

    Some of this will be invested in repairing Amtrak’s crumbling Northeast Corridor (NEC) linking Boston, New York and Washington.

    There are also big plans to bring passenger trains back to many more cities across the nation – providing fast, sustainable travel to cities and regions that have not seen a passenger train for decades.

    Add to this the success of the privately funded Brightline operation in Florida, which has been given the green light to build a $10 billion high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas by 2027, plus schemes in California, Texas and the proposed Cascadia route linking Portland, Oregon, with Seattle and Vancouver, and the United States at last appears to be on the cusp of a passenger rail revolution.

    Amtrak plans to introduce its new generation Avelia Liberty trains to replace the Acelas, pictured, on the NEC later this year.

    “Every president since Ronald Reagan has talked about the pressing need to improve infrastructure across the USA, but they’ve always had other, bigger priorities to deal with,” says Scott Sherin, chief commercial officer of train builder Alstom’s US division.

    “But now there’s a huge impetus to get things moving – it’s a time of optimism. If we build it, they will come. As an industry, we’re maturing, and we’re ready to take the next step. It’s time to focus on passenger rail.”

    Sherin points out that other public services such as highways and airports are “massively subsidized,” so there shouldn’t be an issue with doing the same for rail.

    “We need to do a better job of articulating the benefits of high-speed rail – high-quality jobs, economic stimulus, better connectivity than airlines – and that will help us to build bipartisan support,” he adds. “High-speed rail is not the solution for everything, but it has its place.”

    Only Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor has trains that can travel at speeds approaching those of the 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph) TGV and Shinkansen.

    Even here, Amtrak Acela trains currently max out at 150 mph – and only in short bursts. Maximum speeds elsewhere are closer to 100 mph on congested tracks shared with commuter and freight trains.

    This year, Amtrak plans to introduce its new generation Avelia Liberty trains to replace the life-expired Acelas on the NEC.

    Capable of reaching 220 mph (although they’ll be limited to 160 mph on the NEC), the trains will bring Alstom’s latest high-speed rail technology to North America.

    The locomotives at each end – known as power cars – are close relatives of the next generation TGV-M trains, scheduled to debut in France in 2024.

    Sitting between the power cars are the passenger vehicles, which use Alstom’s Tiltronix technology to run faster through curves by tilting their bodies, much like a MotoGP rider does. And it’s not just travelers who will benefit.

    “When Amtrak awarded the contract to Alstom in 2015 to 2016, the company had around 200 employees in Hornell,” says Shawn D. Hogan, former mayor of the city of Hornell in New York state.

    “That figure is now nearer 900, with hiring continuing at a fast pace. I calculate that there has been a total public/private investment of more than $269 million in our city since 2016, including a new hotel, a state-of-the-art hospital and housing developments.

    “It is a transformative economic development project that is basically unheard of in rural America and if it can happen here, it can happen throughout the United States.”

    Alstom has spent almost $600 million on building a US supply chain for its high-speed trains – more than 80% of the train is made in the United States, with 170 suppliers across 27 states.

    “High-speed rail is already here. Avelia Liberty was designed jointly with our European colleagues, so we have what we need for ‘TGV-USA’,” adds Sherin.

    “It’s all proven tech from existing trains. We’re ready to go when the infrastructure arrives.”

    And those new lines could arrive sooner than you might think.

    In March, Brightline confirmed plans to begin construction on a 218-mile (351-kilometer) high-speed line between Rancho Cucamonga, near Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, carving a path through the San Bernardino Mountains and across the desert, following the Interstate 15 corridor.

    The 200 mph line will slash times to little more than one hour – a massive advantage over the four-hour average by car or five to seven hours by bus – when it opens in 2027.

    Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline Holdings, says: “As the most shovel-ready high-speed rail project in the United States, we are one step closer to leveling the playing field against transit and infrastructure projects around the world, and we are proud to be using America’s most skilled workers to get there.”

    Brightline West expects to inject around $10 billion worth of benefits into the region’s economy, creating about 35,000 construction jobs, as well as 1,000 permanent jobs in maintenance, operations and customer service in Southern California and Nevada.

    It will also mark the return of passenger trains to Las Vegas after a 30-year hiatus – Amtrak canceled its “Desert Wind” route in 1997.

    Brightline hopes to attract around 12 million of the 50 million one-way trips taken annually between Las Vegas and LA, 85% of which are taken by bus or car.

    Contruction is underway on California High Speed Rail (CHSR,) a high-speed system between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

    Meanwhile, construction is progressing on another high-speed line through the San Joaquin Valley.

    Set to open around 2030, California High Speed Rail (CHSR) will run from Merced to Bakersfield (171 miles) at speeds of up to 220 mph.

    Coupled with proposed upgrades to commuter rail lines at either end, this project could eventually allow high-speed trains to run the 350 miles (560 kilometers) between Los Angeles to San Francisco metropolitan areas in just two hours and 40 minutes.

    CHSR has been on the table as far back as 1996, but its implementation has been controversial.

    Disagreements over the route, management issues, delays in land acquisition and construction, cost over-runs and inadequate funding for completing the entire system have plagued the project – despite the economic benefits it will deliver as well as reducing pollution and congestion. Around 10,000 people are already employed on the project.

    Costing $63 billion to $98 billion, depending on the final extent of the scheme, CHSR is to connect six of the 10 largest cities in the state and provide the same capacity as 4,200 miles of new highway lanes, 91 additional airport gates and two new airport runways costing between $122 billion and $199 billion.

    With California’s population expected to grow to more than 45 million by 2050, high-speed rail offers the best value solution to keep the state from grinding to a smoggy halt.

    Brightline West and CHSR offer templates for the future expansion of high-speed rail in North America.

    By focusing on pairs of cities or regions that are too close for air travel and too far apart for car drivers, transportation planners can predict which corridors offer the greatest potential.

    “It’s logical that the US hasn’t yet developed a nationwide high-speed network,” says Sherin. “For decades, traveling by car wasn’t a hardship, but as highway congestion gets worse, we’ve reached a stage where we should start looking more seriously at the alternatives.

    “The magic numbers are centers of population with around three million people that are 200 to 500 miles apart, giving a trip time of less than three hours – preferably two hours.

    “Where those conditions apply in Europe and Asia, high-speed rail reduces air’s share of the market from 100% to near zero. The model would work just as well in the USA as it does globally.”

    French high-speed train the TGV Duplex, built in the 1990s, has a maximum speed of 186 miles per hour.

    Sherin points to the success of the original generation of Acela trains as evidence of this.

    “When the first generation Acela trains started running between New York City and Washington in 2000, Amtrak attracted so many travelers that the airlines stopped running their frequent ‘shuttles’ between the two cities,” he adds.

    However, industry observer Vantuono is more pessimistic.

    “A US high-speed rail network is a pipe dream,” he says. “A lack of political support and federal financial support combined with the kind of fierce landowner opposition that CHSR has faced in California means that the challenges for new high-speed projects are enormous.”

    According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), urban and high-speed rail hold “major promise to unlock substantial benefits” in reducing global transport emissions.

    Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, argues that rail transport is “often neglected” in public debates about future transport systems – and this is especially true in North America.

    “Despite the advent of cars and airplanes, rail of all types has continued to evolve and thrive,” adds Birol.

    Globally, around three-quarters of rail passenger movements are made on electric-powered vehicles, putting the mode in a unique position to take advantage of the rise in renewable energy over the coming decades.

    Here, too, the United States lags far behind the rest of the world, with electrification almost unheard of away from the NEC.

    Rail networks in South Korea, Japan, Europe, China and Russia are more than 60% electrified, according to IEA figures, the highest share of track electrification being South Korea at around 85%.

    In North America, on the other hand, less than 5% of rail routes are electrified.

    The enormous size of the United States and its widely dispersed population mitigates against the creation of a single, unified network of the type being built in China and proposed for Europe.

    Air travel is likely to remain the preferred option for transcontinental journeys that can be more than 3,000 miles (around 4,828 kilometers).

    But there are many shorter inter-city travel corridors where high-speed rail, or a combination of new infrastructure and upgraded railroad tracks or tilting trains, could eventually provide an unbeatable alternative to air travel and highways.

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  • Train derails and causes forest fire in Rockwood, Maine but officials say no hazardous materials involved | CNN

    Train derails and causes forest fire in Rockwood, Maine but officials say no hazardous materials involved | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The train cars that derailed near a village in central Maine Saturday and caused a large fire were not carrying hazardous materials, officials said, adding there was no threat to public safety.

    Officials say the derailed fright train cars were carrying lumber and wiring. Other carts were carrying hazardous materials but were unaffected by the derailment and the fire, a spokesperson for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail network said. Officials said the derailment likely was caused by a washout of ice and debris on the tracks.

    The Rockwood Fire and Rescue Department said the train derailed north of Rockwood, a village in Somerset County that borders Moosehead Lake – the largest body of fresh water in the state.

    Officials at the scene assessed the derailment and said the “hazardous materials are not at risk of leaking and are not at risk of catching fire,” Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry spokesperson Jim Britt said in a statement.

    Three railroad employees suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the derailment and are being treated at a nearby hospital, Britt added.

    The derailment happened around 8:30 a.m. ET when the train came across a track washout in a rural wooded area, the rail network’s spokesperson C. Doniele Carlson said in a statement.

    It wasn’t immediately clear which freight train carrier was operating the train Saturday.

    “An early assessment indicates that the derailment may have been caused by a build-up of melting ice and debris that washed out part of the railroad track,” according to the Maine Forest Service.

    The three locomotive engines and six rail cars that derailed were carrying lumber and electrical wiring and caught fire causing a small forest fire, according to the Maine Forest Service. The fire is now contained and being monitored by local emergency first responders, the service said.

    Maine Governor Janet Mills tweeted she was briefed on the train derailment and stated her office “will continue to closely monitor the situation” but that there was “no threat to public health or safety.”

    The rail network, which was inaugurated Friday, combines railways from Canada and the US to create “the first single-line railway connecting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico,” according to a press release.

    “CPKC is the only railway connecting North America and has unrivaled port access on coasts around the continent, from Vancouver to Atlantic Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to Lázaro Cárdenas on Mexico’s Pacific coast,” the press release states.

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  • CSX freight train derails after striking rockslide in West Virginia, injuring 3 and spilling diesel into river | CNN

    CSX freight train derails after striking rockslide in West Virginia, injuring 3 and spilling diesel into river | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A CSX freight train derailed Wednesday morning after striking a rockslide in a remote area of West Virginia, injuring three crew members and spilling diesel fuel into a nearby river, according to a company press release.

    The three crew members were in the locomotive, which caught fire after the derailment, and are being treated for non-life threatening injuries, CSX said. Two were airlifted and the third was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, a Summers County Office of Emergency Management dispatcher told CNN.

    Diesel fuel and oil spilled into the New River, and containment measures will be deployed, CSX said. The company also noted that the coal train was empty and was not transporting hazardous materials. CSX spokesperson Sheriee Bowman told CNN that 22 empty rail cars derailed.

    “The incident posed no danger to the public,” the CSX release said.

    The Federal Rail Administration says it’s actively monitoring the derailment and said that the fire has been extinguished. The administration said the derailment occurred on an Amtrak route, so residual delays may be expected.

    At least one locomotive and one fuel tank went into the New River, the West Virginia Emergency Management Division said. The division said the derailment occurred in a remote area south of Sandstone inside the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, which in 2021 became America’s 63rd national park.

    The derailment comes about a month after a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed and caught fire near East Palestine, Ohio, releasing potentially dangerous chemicals into the air and water. The incident has spurred bipartisan political efforts to prevent future incidents.

    CSX owns 12 feet from the middle of the train track to either side and is responsible for cleanup, the division said, adding praise for the early efforts of the company and first responders.

    “I’d like to commend the response agencies and CSX for their quick and efficient response,” said Summers County Emergency Manager Steve Lipscomb. “All the agencies worked as a team to provide prompt medical aid and transportation to the injured.”

    No roads are closed and there have been no evacuations of nearby homes, the division said.

    Chief Deputy Tim Adkins of the Summers County Sheriff’s Department said they received a call around 5 a.m. Wednesday about the derailment at a “pretty remote stretch of railway.” There was “extensive damage” to the train but no damage to outside property and no roads were blocked, he said.

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  • NTSB investigating Norfolk Southern’s safety culture after conductor is killed in accident involving dump truck in Ohio | CNN

    NTSB investigating Norfolk Southern’s safety culture after conductor is killed in accident involving dump truck in Ohio | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Norfolk Southern conductor was killed Tuesday after being struck by a dump truck at a facility in Ohio, prompting a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the railway’s safety culture due to the “number and significance” of recent accidents.

    The conductor, identified as 46-year-old Louis Shuster, was fatally injured early Tuesday morning at the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works property, the railroad said in a news release. It is the third incident involving the railroad in the state in just over a month.

    Shuster was struck when a dump truck carrying limestone collided with the front left side of the first car of the train. He was outside the car when he was struck, a Cleveland police spokesperson told CNN.

    Norfolk Southern is working with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, the Cleveland Police Department and Cleveland-Cliffs representatives to learn more, it said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it had sent crews to the scene.

    The NTSB said in a statement later that its safety culture probe encompasses multiple incidents and three deaths since December 2021, including the toxic East Palestine derailment and the employee killed earlier Tuesday. It is already investigating a October 28 derailment in Sandusky, Ohio.

    “The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture,” the board said in a statement. “The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company. At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.”

    Norfolk Southern’s CEO is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee Thursday.

    “Norfolk Southern has been in touch with the conductor’s family and will do all it can to support them and his colleagues. We are grieving the loss of a colleague today. Our hearts go out to his loved ones during this extremely difficult time,” the railroad said.

    Shuster was member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and employed as a Norfolk Southern conductor, according to the union.

    “Lou was a passionate and dedicated union brother,” said Pat Redmond, Local Chairman of BLET Division 607. “He was always there for his coworkers. He was very active in helping veterans who worked on the railroad and veterans all across our community.”

    Shuster, a resident of Broadview Heights, Ohio, was president of BLET Division 607 in Cleveland. Shuster has a 16-year-old son and cared for his elderly parents, and was an Army veteran, the union said.

    “This was a tragic situation and it’s a devastating loss for the Shuster family as well as the members of this union,” said BLET National President Eddie Hall. “All railroad accidents are avoidable. This collision underscores the need for significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”

    Cleveland-Cliffs is a flat-rolled steel company, according to its website, and its Cleveland Works facility sits on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.

    CNN has reached out to Cleveland-Cliffs, Cleveland police and the Ohio governor’s office for more information.

    The conductor’s death comes as Norfolk Southern is facing criticism for two recent derailments in Ohio, including one in East Palestine last month that resulted in the release and burning of a toxic chemical that left nearby residents complaining of headaches, coughing and rashes they believe are tied to the fiery crash.

    As the railroad works with the Environmental Protection Agency to remediate the site, it announced a new six-point safety plan Monday designed to help prevent similar derailments in the future.

    And in Springfield, about 200 miles southwest of East Palestine, another Norfolk Southern freight train derailed Saturday.

    The crash knocked out power and the area and resulted in a temporary shelter-in-place order for homes within 1,000 feet of the scene. Crews later determined nothing had spilled from the derailed cars and there was no environmental harm.

    Casualties, including injuries and deaths, involving railroad employees are not uncommon, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration, which shows there were more than 13,500 incidents involving on-duty employees across the industry in 2022, including 1,060 involving Norfolk Southern employees.

    Forty-two rail employees died while on duty last year, the administration said. Five of those individuals were Norfolk Southern employees.

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  • Greek prime minister apologizes over train collision amid public fury | CNN

    Greek prime minister apologizes over train collision amid public fury | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologized for one of the country’s worst train crashes in years, saying “We cannot, will not, and must not hide behind human error.”

    A passenger train carrying more than 350 people collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening in Tempi, near the city of Larissa, killing at least 57 people and injuring scores more.

    Demonstrators have been pouring onto the streets in the wake of the deadly crash, with widespread anger over the country’s railway safety record. Fresh unrest broke out on Sunday, with protesters clashing with police in Athens in scenes that are expected to be seen across the country.

    “This crime should not be covered up, we will be the voice of all the dead,” was one of the slogans during Sunday’s protest in Athens.

    In a statement, Mitsotakis said it should not be possible for two trains moving in opposite directions “to be on the same track and not be noticed by anyone.”

    “As prime minister, I owe everyone, but above all to the relatives of the victims, a big sorry. Both personally, and in the name of all those who ruled the country for years,” Mitsotakis said.

    The reference to human error marks a change of tone from the prime minister. In the aftermath of the collision he blamed “tragic human error.”

    His latest statement though suggested systematic problems in the Greek railway network, promising announcements in the coming days to “immediately improve the safety of the railways.”

    On Thursday after a train station manager was arrested in Larissa in connection with the collision, Greek authorities made public dispatch recordings revealing that one of the train drivers involved had received instructions to ignore a red light.

    Greece has a poor record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe, recording the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent, according to a 2022 report from the European Union Agency for Railways.

    The head-on collision left toppled carriages and scorched debris in its wake. Many of those on board were young people returning home from a holiday weekend.

    The country’s transport minister resigned in the wake of the tragedy and a rail workers’ union went on strike, accusing the government of neglecting the system.

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  • Norfolk Southern freight train derails in Clark County, Ohio, prompting shelter-in-place order ‘out of abundance of caution’ | CNN

    Norfolk Southern freight train derails in Clark County, Ohio, prompting shelter-in-place order ‘out of abundance of caution’ | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in the Springfield, Ohio, area Saturday afternoon, prompting a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents – just one month after the company’s toxic train wreck on the other side of the state in East Palestine.

    No injuries were reported Saturday and there was no hazmat situation at the crash site in Clark County, an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesperson told CNN. The derailment happened around 5 p.m. ET and the road was closed on State Route 41, the spokesperson added.

    Twenty cars of the 212-car Norfolk Southern train derailed while headed south in the Springfield area, Norfolk Southern spokesperson Connor Spielmaker told CNN.

    “No hazardous materials are involved and there have been no reported injuries,” Spielmaker said. “Our teams are enroute to the site to begin cleanup operations.”

    The company is working to find out what the train was transporting, Spielmaker added, confirming it was not a passenger train.

    The Clark County Emergency Management Agency asked residents Saturday who were within 1,000 feet of the train derailment “to shelter-in-place out of an abundance of caution.”

    “We ask that all residents in need of travel to Ohio 41 find alternate routes. Local and state officials are on scene, including the Springfield Fire Rescue Division and the Springfield Police Department,” the agency said in a Facebook update.

    Clark County officials also said they were aware of power outages in the area due to downed power lines.

    US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he has been briefed on the derailment and is sending Federal Railroad Administration officials to the scene.

    “I have been briefed by FRA leadership and spoke with Gov. DeWine to offer our support after the derailment today in Clark County, Ohio. No hazardous material release has been reported, but we will continue to monitor closely and FRA personnel are en route,” Buttigieg said in a tweet on Saturday.

    The derailment comes as crews were still working to clear the toxic wreck of another Norfolk Southern train that derailed on February 3 while carrying hazardous materials more than 200 miles away in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The East Palestine derailment fueled outcry among residents who have complained of symptoms, including headaches and coughing after the fiery crash. The train was hauling dangerous chemical vinyl chloride – which was released and burned to prevent a potentially deadly explosion – and other chemicals that are feared to have leaked into the surrounding ecosystem.

    Norfolk Southern has promised to fully clean up the wreck and vowed to invest in East Palestine.

    The derailment has put rail safety under the spotlight and raised questions about regulations surrounding the transport of hazardous materials. Data from the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis shows there have been at least 1,000 derailments in the United States each year during the past decade.

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  • Despite toxic disaster, railroads still want single-person crews | CNN Business

    Despite toxic disaster, railroads still want single-person crews | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The nation’s major freight railroads have long desired to have only one crew member, a lone engineer, in the cab of their locomotives. And that desire hasn’t changed despite the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3 that released toxic chemicals into the air, water and soil of East Palestine, Ohio, that is still being cleaned up.

    But that accident very well may have ended the railroad’s chances of getting that one-person crew goal.

    The rail safety legislation, introduced in Congress Wednesday with bipartisan support, would include a prohibition on single-person crews. There is no such existing law or federal regulation requiring both an engineer and a conductor to be on a train. Instead, it is only labor deals with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the transportation division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation union (SMART-TD), which represents the conductors, that require at least one member of each union in the locomotive’s cab.

    The Association of American Railroads confirmed that its position in favor of one-person crews has not changed. It believes it will be more efficient, and just as safe, to have engineers responding to problems with trains by driving along tracks in trucks rather than riding in the cab of the locomotive.

    “The position on crew size has not changed. Railroads have been clear that they support fact-driven policies that address the cause of this accident and enhance safety,” said an AAR statement. “As we continue to review this bill, it is clear it includes many of the same wish list items AAR and others have clearly said would not prevent a similar accident in the future, such as the… arbitrary crew size rule. Railroads look forward to working with all stakeholders to meaningfully advance real solutions.”

    Union Pacific said the opposition to a two-person crew mandate does not mean the railroads don’t care about safety.

    “No data shows a two-person crew confined to a cab is safer, and train crew size should continue to be determined through collective bargaining,” a statement from UP. “Proposed legislation limits our ability to compete in a business landscape where technology is rapidly changing the transportation industry.”

    CSX also said it believes the decision on crew size should be decided in collective bargaining, not through legislation, but said it is not currently pursuing a change in crew size. Negotiations between the railroads and unions is not due to start again until 2024, and the railroads historically have negotiated deals that apply across the industry. The other two major freight railroads – Norfolk Southern and Burlington Northern Santa Fe – did not responded to questions about the legislation. But the AAR is the trade group that lobbies on their behalf.

    The AAR’s statement did not address the question as to whether that rule is now more likely to pass. But Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD, said this accident has completely changed the chances of getting the two-person crew requirement written into US law.

    “Absolutely,” he said when asked in an interview with CNN Business if he thinks the provision will now pass. “When an incident like this happens, it brings all the issues to light, how unsafe the rail industry truly is. I didn’t think we had any chance before this. The railroads and AAR do a very good job of lobbying in DC. So generally it’s difficult to get people to vote for something like this rule. But sometimes it takes a disaster to drive home the point. Any time you turn the TV on, there’s still an issue. It’s not going away.”

    The senators, both Democrat and Republican, sponsoring the rail safety bill say they’re hopeful there is now bipartisan support to change the law.

    “Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat. “These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again.”

    “Through this legislation, Congress has a real opportunity to ensure that what happened in East Palestine will never happen again,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican who is a co-sponsor. “We owe every American the peace of mind that their community is protected from a catastrophe of this kind.”

    If the law is changed due to the East Palestine derailment, it won’t be the first disaster that changed rules and laws governing trains. In 2013, a runaway Canadian freight train carrying tanker cars of oil crashed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, causing a massive fire that killed 47 people and destroyed 40 buildings in the town. Canada responded by changing its law to require two person crews on trains carrying hazardous materials.

    But calls to change the law in the United States because of that accident fell on deaf ears.

    The fact that there were three employees on the train that derailed in East Palestine — an engineer, a conductor and a trainee — did not prevent this accident from happening.

    The National Transportation Safety Board’s initial finding on the disaster was that a fire originally started when a rail car carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle.

    After the fire started, the train passed three trackside detectors meant to determine if there is a problem causing overheating. But the first two did not signal a problem, even as the fire raised the temperature more than 100 degrees. The detectors are designed not to alert the crew until there is a 200-degree rise in the temperature detected. Finally the third detector registered a rise in temperature of more than 250 degrees, triggering an alarm in the locomotive’s cab.

    The NTSB said the engineer responded immediately to the alarm by applying the brakes in an attempt to stop the train, but the wheel bearing on the car that was on fire failed before he could bring the train to a halt, causing the derailment.

    Ferguson said that while the crew could not prevent this derailment from happening, there are an uncounted number of times that they detect a problem and prevent a derailment. He said not having the conductor on the train would miss many of those problems and cause many more derailments.

    “When a detector goes off, you stop the train and the conductor can walk back and check if there is an overheating axle and make an immediate decision,” Ferguson said. An engineer is not allowed to get out of the locomotive, even if it’s stopped. Only the conductor can check to see if what the problems is that triggered an alarm.

    But if the conductor is driving around in a truck, rather than riding in the cab of the locomotive, it could be an hour or more before the conductor gets there, and the axle might have cooled down. At that point, the conductor might have to send the train back on its way, according to Ferguson, even though the original problem tripping the heat detector — a faulty axle or bearing — is still a problem that could quickly cause a derailment.

    “So having a guy wandering around in the truck may cause a derailment,” said Ferguson.

    Beyond the problems of this kind, having a second person in the cab can just offer greater attention to detail during long train rides.

    “You’ve got two sets of ears and two set of eyes. It always helps,” Ferguson said.

    And it also helps in case of a medical emergency. In January, a CSX engineer suffered a heart attack while bringing a freight train into Savannah, Georgia, according to the engineers’ union. The conductor was able to recognize he was in distress, give him an aspirin and to call ahead to have an ambulance waiting for him in the rail yard.

    The engineer needed emergency bypass surgery, but survived the heart attack.

    “This happens more often than people realize,” Ferguson said. “It’s not necessarily always a heart attack. But having two people up there always pays dividend for the crew members themselves.”

    CSX confirmed the incident with one of its engineer having a heart attack occurred in January.

    “We commend the heroic actions of all CSX employees who render aid during any medical emergency,” said CSX’s statement.

    The fact that the current labor contracts require two crew members is little comfort to the engineers and conductors unions.

    They point out that under the Railway Labor Act, they can have a contract that is opposed by some or all of the rail unions imposed upon them by Congress, as happened this past December. While this current contract did keep the provision for two-person crews in place, that’s not necessarily going to be the case in all future contracts, even if the unions continue to make the issue a priority.

    Congress generally enacts what is recommended by a panel appointed by the president to propose a deal that hopefully both labor and management can accept. But it might have one or two provisions which are deal breakers for the unions, such as allowing single-person crews.

    “Given the wrong president, we could lose this in a hurry,” said Ferguson.

    The Federal Railroad Administration is also considering a rule that would require two-person crews. But Ferguson said getting the requirement written into law would be better than a simple regulation. An FRA regulation could be easier to change in a new administration than it would be to get a change in the law.

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  • It’s been one month since a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio. Here’s what’s happened since | CNN

    It’s been one month since a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio. Here’s what’s happened since | CNN

    Feb. 3 — Around 8:12 p.m., sparks shoot out from underneath the Norfolk Southern freight train as it passes through Salem, Ohio, surveillance video shows.

    Around 8:55 p.m., 38 of the train’s cars derail in East Palestine. The derailed equipment includes 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that ignited, fueling fires that damage another dozen cars, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

    Feb. 4 — Members of the US Environmental Protection Agency arrive hours after the derailment and start monitoring the air for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, which were on the train and can be harmful to people, the agency says.

    EPA contractors install booms and underflow dams to try to restrict the flow of contaminated water and collect floating material to mitigate any possible impacts to Sulphur Run and Leslie Run streams.

    Feb. 5 — Gov. Mike DeWine activates the Ohio National Guard to assist local authorities.

    Officials issue a shelter-in-place order for the entire town of roughly 5,000 people. An evacuation order is issued for the area within a mile radius of the train crash near James Street, due to the risk of an explosion.

    EPA community air monitoring readings do not detect any contaminants of concern, the agency says. Norfolk Southern’s contractor continues to conduct air monitoring, it says.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is on scene to gather evidence and asks the community to submit photos or videos of the incident.

    NTSB conducts a one-mile walk-through of track outside the hot zone and identifies the point of derailment. NTSB Member Michael Graham says the preliminary report is expected in four to eight weeks.

    Aeration pumps – which help treat contamination by injecting oxygen into the water – begin operating at three locations along Sulphur Run and its confluence with Leslie Run. EPA and Norfolk Southern contractors collect surface water samples for analysis.

    The East Palestine water treatment plant, which treats water sourced from public wells, confirms there were no adverse effects to the plant, the EPA says.

    Feb. 6 — To help prevent a deadly explosion of vinyl chloride, crews conduct a controlled detonation involving cars containing the toxic substance. The chemical was drained into a trench and burned off. “The detonation went perfect,” a Norfolk Southern official said.

    After the breach, officials detected “slightly elevated” readings of the phosgene and hydrogen chloride in the burn area and “only one minor hit for the hydrogen chloride downwind of the burn area” within the exclusion zone, an EPA official said. He said such readings were expected after the controlled release.

    Feb. 7 — Residents in the area are told they may smell odors coming from the site because the byproducts of the controlled burn have a low odor threshold – meaning people may smell these contaminants at levels much lower than what is considered hazardous, the EPA says.

    The EPA continues to perform air monitoring and work with Norfolk Southern, health departments and other responding agencies to develop procedures for safely reoccupying the evacuated areas.

    The 52nd Civil Service Team conducts air monitoring in three public administration buildings and collects air samples from each building, according to the EPA.

    The EPA says it is investigating a complaint of odors from the Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, fire station. A team with air monitoring equipment goes to the station, where it does not observe any contaminants above detection limits.

    Feb. 8 — The evacuation order is lifted, five days after the derailment, after water samples are analyzed overnight. The results lead officials to deem the water is safe, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick says at a news conference.

    The EPA and Ohio EPA find spilled materials in Sulphur Run, the EPA says. Oily product is leaking from a tank car and pooling onto the soil. Norfolk Southern is notified of the spill and begins removing the product using a vacuum truck.

    A local couple and business owner file the first-class action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, CNN reports. The suit accuses the rail company of negligence, stating it failed to exercise reasonable care for residents, with businesses adversely affected by the derailment and chemical spill.

    Feb. 9 — EPA continues stationary and roaming air monitoring surrounding the derailment scene.

    Despite officials deeming the air and water samples safe, some residents still have concerns. Residents are encouraged to get their homes deep-cleaned and seek medical attention, if necessary, officials say at a news conference.

    The EPA works with Ohio EPA to investigate remaining soil contamination and any impacts to surface water, the agency says. EPA collects samples of spilled material near the derailment site and in Sulphur Run.

    Officials say schools will remain closed until further notice from the superintendent.

    Mayor Trent Conaway ensures that the school building will be scrubbed “head to toe” and air tested before any child walks back into the building.

    Feb. 10 — Some residents say when they returned to their homes in East Palestine, within a half-hour they developed a rash and nausea.

    EPA is assisting with voluntary residential air screening appointments offered by Norfolk Southern, the agency says. Crews have screened indoor air at 46 homes. There are over 400 requests for indoor air screening remaining.

    To increase the rate of screening, Norfolk Southern – with EPA assistance – brings more teams and equipment to East Palestine, according to the EPA.

    Ohio EPA leads efforts to investigate and remediate impacts to water, the agency says. Samples from Sulphur Run and other points of nearby water streams are taken for testing.

    Norfolk Southern contractors install a dam and a water bypass at Sulphur Run to prevent further contamination of downstream waters, the EPA says.

    Feb. 11 — EPA issues a general notice of potential liability letter to Norfolk Southern to document the release or threat of release of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants to the environment. The letter outlines EPA cleanup actions at the site and the potential to hold the railroad accountable for associated costs.

    EPA continues to assist Norfolk Southern and Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency with voluntary residential air screening, the EPA says.

    Feb. 12 — EPA posts a document from Norfolk Southern listing the cars that were involved in the derailment and the products they were carrying.

    Air monitoring throughout East Palestine continues, the EPA says. Monitoring since the fire went out has not detected any levels of concern that can be attributed to the incident.

    Local schools and the library are screened, the EPA says.

    Feb. 13 — Reentry air screenings are underway. Community air monitoring will continue operating 24 hours a day.

    EPA deploys two more Summa air sampling canisters for continuous sampling.

    EPA discontinues phosgene and hydrogen chloride community air monitoring. After the fire was extinguished on February 8, the threat of vinyl chloride fire producing phosgene and hydrogen chloride no longer exists. EPA will continue 24-hour community air monitoring for other chemicals of concern.

    The East Palestine School District “safely” reopens schools.

    Feb. 14 — No vinyl chloride is detected in any of the down-gradient waterways near the train derailment, Tiffani Kavalec, Chief of the Division of Surface Water at the Ohio EPA says. Active aeration of the waterways near the derailment continue, and even though some waterways remain contaminated, the agency says it is confident the contaminants are contained.

    About 3,500 fish across 12 species have died in Ohio waterways, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says.

    Feb. 15 — Residents pack a high school gym in East Palestine for a meeting with officials to discuss the current state of their community, CNN reports.

    The event hosted by East Palestine officials was supposed to include officials from Norfolk Southern. But the company, which said it had hoped to provide updates on cleanup efforts and results from air and water tests, backed out earlier in the day, saying it was concerned about a “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event,” stemming from its belief that “outside parties” would participate.

    Instead, local leaders take questions from emotional residents who express distrust of officials’ accounts and anger – including at the transport company’s decision to skip the event.

    Norfolk Southern provides bottled water at its family assistance center, the EPA says.

    Regional Administrator Debra Shore attends a community meeting alongside EPA on-scene coordinators and state and local officials to hear residents’ concerns.

    Gov. DeWine issues a news release stating the municipal water is safe to consume. Test results from the village’s municipal well sampling showed no water quality concerns, the state says.

    East Palestine’s municipal water supply comes from five wells, DeWine’s office says. All the wells are at least 56 feet underground and encased in steel. As of February 15 (12 days after the derailment/initial explosion and nine days after the controlled detonation), test samples from both the raw, untreated municipal water and the treated water showed no dangerous levels of contaminants, the governor’s office says.

    DeWine encourages those East Palestine residents with private wells who have not had their water tested to continue drinking bottled water “out of an abundance of caution.”

    Norfolk Southern has not removed potentially contaminated soil from the site, new documents posted by the EPA show. Norfolk Southern tells CNN it continues to work to clean up the site, including the removal of soil.

    “Contaminated soil will continue (to) leech contaminants, both up into the air, and down into the surrounding ground,” Richard Peltier, an environmental health scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, tells CNN in an email. “Every time it rains, a flood of new contaminants will enter the ecosystem.”

    Feb. 16 — EPA Administrator Michael Regan arrives in East Palestine to assess the ongoing response to the Norfolk Southern train derailment. The administrator meets with city, state and federal leaders involved in the response, hearing directly from residents about the impacts of the crisis and discuss EPA’s work.

    DeWine asks the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for immediate assistance by sending expert medical assistance including doctors and professionals who can evaluate residents who are experiencing symptoms.

    Feb. 17 — DeWine says no derailment contaminants have been found in homes tested for air quality and that there is a section of Sulfur Run near the crash site that remains severely contaminated.

    Requests for medical experts from the federal government have been granted and DeWine says officials should arrive next week to help prop up a clinic for patients.

    Feb. 18 — Air monitoring and indoor air screening continue, according to the EPA. Municipal water samples show no water quality concerns, the agency says.

    Emphasis is being placed on recovery of all pooled liquids, excavation of heavily contaminated soil, and removal of all remaining rail cars, according to the EPA. In order to capture any contamination leaving the site, Norfolk Southern establishes a containment area in a section of Sulphur Creek to divert all upstream water around the containment area. The containment area has effectively cut off the introduction of additional contamination into Sulphur Run.

    Feb. 19 — The village of East Palestine’s municipal well water sample results show no water quality concerns, the EPA says. The Columbiana County General Health District continues to sample private water wells. To date, 52 wells have been sampled, 49 in Ohio, and three across the border in Pennsylvania, the agency says.

    Norfolk Southern continues scrapping and removing rail cars at the derailment location, excavating contaminated areas, removing liquids from affected storm drains and staging recovered waste for transportation to an approved disposal facility, the EPA says. Water continues to be diverted from the upstream wetland area to Sulphur Run.

    Feb. 21 — The state opens up a health clinic for residents who worry their symptoms, such as trouble breathing, rashes and nausea, might be linked to the derailment.

    CNN reports investigators are reviewing videos of the train prior to it derailing. One video shows “what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,” the National Transportation Safety Board says in a statement.

    The EPA announces its legally binding notice ordering Norfolk Southern to handle and pay for all necessary cleanup involved in the derailment.

    As part of EPA’s legally binding order, the agency said, Norfolk Southern will be required to:

    • Identify and clean up any contaminated soil and water resources,

    • Reimburse the EPA for cleaning services to be offered to residents and businesses to provide an additional layer of reassurance, which will be conducted by EPA staff and contractors,

    • Attend and participate in public meetings at the EPA’s request and post information online,

    • Pay for the EPA’s costs for work performed under this order.

    The order will take effect February 23. If the rail company fails to complete any actions ordered by EPA, the agency says it will immediately step in, conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost.

    After the accusations, Norfolk Southern issues a statement to CNN:

    “We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” the company said Tuesday.

    “We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so. We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site, and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives. We are investing in helping East Palestine thrive for the long-term, and we will continue to be in the community for as long as it takes. We are going to learn from this terrible accident and work with regulators and elected officials to improve railroad safety.”

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office says it will investigate the train derailment following a criminal referral it received from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, according to a statement from the office.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro first mentions the criminal referral when he was asked what nonfinancial actions are being taken.

    In response to news about the criminal referral, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson says the company has no comment.

    Feb. 22 — EPA Administrator Michael Regan threatens to fine Norfolk Southern if it fails to fully clean up after the mess the derailment left behind, he says, citing the agency’s authority under CERCLA – the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

    Regan summarizes the EPA’s demands to Norfolk Southern:

    “Number one: They will clean up every single piece of debris, all of the contamination, to EPA specifications and satisfaction,” he tells CNN.

    “Number two: They will pay for it – fully pay for it. At any moment, if we have to step in because they refuse to do anything, we will do the cleaning up ourselves. We can fine them up to $70,000 a day,” the EPA chief said.

    “And when we recoup our total costs, we can charge them three times of the amount of the cost of the federal government. That is what the law provides.”

    The East Palestine School District closes for one day due to former President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to the area.

    Feb. 23 — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg makes his first visit to East Palestine nearly three weeks after the train derailment and defends the timing of the trip.

    “In terms of the timing of the visit, I’m trying to strike the right balance allowing NTSB to play its role but making sure we’re here in that show of support,” he says.

    Buttigieg says he’s focused on making regulatory changes to prevent future incidents and challenged his critics to do the same.

    Feb. 24 — Officials in Michigan and Texas say they were stunned to learn hazardous waste from Ohio was headed to their states because they received no advance notification.

    Feb. 25 — The EPA orders Norfolk Southern to stop shipments of hazardous waste so it can review the company’s plans for disposal.

    Feb. 26 — Hazardous waste shipments will resume and go to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore says. The shipments will begin the next day. “Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore says. “Norfolk Southern will also begin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

    Week of Feb. 27 — A data analysis suggests nine out of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than what normally would be found in East Palestine, according to scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon universities.

    If the levels of some chemicals remain high, it could pose a problem for residents’ health over time, the scientists said. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.

    An EPA spokesperson says monitored chemicals “are below levels of concern for adverse health impacts from short-term exposure.”

    “The long-term risks referenced by this analysis assume a lifetime of exposure, which is constant exposure over approximately 70 years,” the spokesperson says. “EPA does not anticipate levels of these chemicals will stay high for anywhere near that. We are committed to staying in East Palestine and will continue to monitor the air inside and outside of homes to ensure that these levels remain safe over time.”

    Feb. 27 — The EPA announces two more sites will receive toxic waste from East Palestine – one in Indiana, and a third facility in Ohio.

    Feb. 28 — Recent heavy rain may have allowed “a small amount of heavily diluted contaminants” to flow from the Sulphur Run stream to the Leslie Run stream, the Ohio governor’s office said, citing the state’s environmental protection agency.

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  • Ohio toxic train disaster leads to more concerns in other states while scientists say chemical tests in East Palestine are unusually high | CNN

    Ohio toxic train disaster leads to more concerns in other states while scientists say chemical tests in East Palestine are unusually high | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The aftermath of the toxic train wreck in Ohio keeps spreading to more states as scientists say tests in East Palestine unusually high levels of some chemicals.

    Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is the latest out-of-state official to say he was stunned to learn hazardous waste from the Norfolk Southern train derailment and subsequent release of toxic chemicals was headed to his state.

    “After learning third-hand that materials may be transported to our state yesterday, I directed my environmental director to reach out” to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Holcomb said in a written statement Tuesday.

    “The materials should go to the nearest facilities, not moved from the far eastern side of Ohio to the far western side of Indiana,” Holcomb said. “I want to know exactly what precautions will be taken in the transport and disposition of the materials.”

    After surprise shipments of hazardous waste to Texas and Michigan, the EPA approved two sites in Ohio to handle safe disposal of the waste.

    Another two sites – Heritage Environmental Services’ hazardous waste landfill in Roachdale, Indiana, and Ross Incineration Services in Grafton, Ohio – will receive contaminated waste starting Tuesday, EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said Monday. She said Indiana officials and state partners were notified before the EPA approved “the shipment of any waste from the derailment to their state or district.”

    But US EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the agency is developing measures to give authorities a “heads up” about incoming waste shipments and to keep Norfolk Southern accountable for the material it is moving.

    On the other side of Ohio, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is opening a health resource center in Beaver County so residents “can talk to public health experts, sign up to have their well water tested, and learn about available resources from professionals there to help,” Gov. Josh Shapiro tweeted Tuesday.

    Beaver County is just across the state border from East Palestine, Ohio – a village of 5,000 struggling to understand the full breadth of consequences from the February 3 toxic train wreck that burned for days and led to the release of the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride.

    A new data analysis suggests nine out of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than what normally would be found in East Palestine, according to scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon universities.

    If the levels of some chemicals remain high, it could pose a problem for residents’ health over time, the scientists said. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.

    The chemical with the highest concentration found in East Palestine was a substance called acrolein, the data analysis said.

    Acrolein is used to control plants, algae, rodents and microorganisms. It is a clear liquid at room temperature and is toxic. It can cause inflammation and irritation of the skin, respiratory tract and mucous membranes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “It’s not elevated to the point where it’s necessarily like an immediate ‘evacuate the building’ health concern,” said Albert Presto, an associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, who is working on the university’s chemical monitoring effort in East Palestine.

    “But, you know, we don’t know necessarily what the long-term risk is or how long that concentration that causes that risk will persist.”

    Some East Palestine residents have reported rashes, headaches, nausea and bloody noses since the derailment and the February 6 controlled release and burning of vinyl chloride.

    During his third visit to the town Tuesday, the EPA chief said ongoing tests of the air and municipal water show both are safe – but urged anyone who is feeling “any kind of adverse health impacts” to seek medical attention.

    Regan returned to East Palestine to mark the opening of the “EPA’s community welcome center,” which will be open daily so “residents and business owners can stop in to get their questions answered, sign up for home air monitoring, and learn more about cleaning services.”

    “We’ve been testing the air from the very beginning, and the state has been testing the water,” Regan said.

    “Every chemical that was on that train and every byproduct from those chemicals have been tested or are part of our testing regimen,” he said. “So we believe firmly that our testing regimen is protective.”

    Still, the EPA is offering cleaning services – which will be reimbursed by Norfolk Southern – to any concerned resident in East Palestine.

    “There have been many residents here who have indicated that they worry about some residual, or some dust or some particles,” Regan said. “While we don’t believe that there are any adverse health impacts in homes or businesses as it relates to the derailment, this is an additional step we’re taking to alleviate concern and lower the angst.”

    Ohio officials have said East Palestine’s municipal water supply is safe to drink, citing multiple tests and the fact that the municipal water comes from five wells encased in steel deep underground.

    But health officials warn those using private well water should get it tested before using it. The Columbiana County Health District is posting test results online.

    Across the border in Pennsylvania, the state Department of Environmental Protection has collected samples from “nearly every private well” in the state within one mile of the derailment site, the governor said.

    The goal is to independently verify the safety of the water in Pennsylvania, Shapiro said.

    He reiterated that “Norfolk Southern will pay for the entire cost of the clean up,” including reimbursing Pennsylvania county fire departments for “equipment that was damaged or contaminated while responding to the derailment.”

    US Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has called for Norfolk Southern and the rest of the freight rail industry to take a number of immediate actions, including committing to phase in safer tank cars by 2025.

    The Department of Transportation also wants Congress to take up legislation that would increase the maximum fines the DOT can issue to rail companies for violating safety regulations, Buttigieg said.

    He also called on the CEOs of major freight rail companies to “join a close-call reporting system that protects whistleblowers who spot issues that could lead to accidents,” Buttigieg told CNN on Tuesday.

    “We’re focusing on lessons learned when it comes to rail safety.”

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  • Union Pacific CEO to leave after push from activist shareholder | CNN Business

    Union Pacific CEO to leave after push from activist shareholder | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Union Pacific shares jumped 10% in premarket trading Monday after the railroad company announced CEO Lance Fritz will leave the company by year-end, following a call by an activist hedge fund for his ouster.

    Union Pacific just reported a record profit for the second straight year. But the hedge fund, Soroban Capital Partners, put out a statement saying that Fritz had lost the confidence of “shareholders, employees, customers, and regulators.”

    “UNP’s total shareholder return has been the worst in the industry,” said Soroban’s letter to the board. “Among all S&P 500 companies, UNP is rated by employees as the worst place to work and has the lowest employee CEO approval rating (ranked 500th out of 500 in both),” said the letter. And it said that the Surface Transportation Board, one of the regulators of freight railroads, ranked Union Pacific as providing the worst service among the major railroads.

    Soroban only owns about 1% of Union Pacific’s shares.

    “It is my honor and privilege to serve this great company. I am proud of our team and all we have built together,” said Fritz in a statement. “Union Pacific has been my home for 22 years and I am confident that now is the right time for Union Pacific’s next leader to take the helm.”

    Union Pacific said its process of looking for a new CEO had been ongoing for a year and that it decided to make a public statement in light of Soroban’s public call for a change.

    “The Board is grateful to Lance for his unwavering leadership, dedication and oversight in driving our company forward over the last eight years as CEO. Lance created an environment that has allowed Union Pacific to make a measurable impact with our customers, communities and employees alike,” said Michael McCarthy, lead independent director of the Board. “He has capably led our company during a time of significant challenge and change.”

    But, overall, the level of service and on-time performance in the freight railroad industry has been declining for years, as the railroads attempted to trim costs and staffing.

    Despite the industry’s record profits, stocks in major freight railroads have lagged other sectors. Shares of Union Pacific

    (UNP)     are down about 20% over the last 12 month through Friday’s close, even with a rebound in share price so far in 2023. That’s worse than the drop in share price at other major railroads like Norfolk Southern

    (NSC)     and CSX

    (CSX)    .

    As far as employee relations, Union Pacific was seen as a leader among freight railroads in contentious labor negotiations last year that would have resulted in an economy-crippling strike had Congress not stepped in and imposed an unpopular contract. The contract granted employees an immediate 14% raise, including back pay, but denied them the paid sick days they had sought.

    Union Pacific and other railroads argued during the negotiations that it couldn’t afford to meet union demands for paid sick days, even though the unions estimated it would cost the entire industry $321 million a year at a time when the railroads are each making billions of dollars in profits.

    Union Pacific last year earned a net income of $7 billion, up about $500 million, or 7%, from the previous record profit it posted for 2021. Total employee compensation for the year came to $4.6 billion, far less than the $6.3 billion that Union Pacific spent repurchasing shares of stock in the period.

    Last week, Union Pacific reached an agreement with two of its smaller unions granting their members up to four sick days a year, as well as greater flexibility to use three personal days as sick days without prior notice and approval.

    “We will continue to work with other unions to address paid sick time solutions,” according to the company’s statement on sick pay last week. The move came after another major railroad, CSX, reached deals granting sick days with six of its unions. UP did act before a third railroad, Norfolk Southern, reached a deal with one of its unions on sick days in the wake of a major train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which released toxic materials into the area.

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  • East Palestine derailment spurs rare signs of bipartisan agreement on rail safety. Will Washington act? | CNN Politics

    East Palestine derailment spurs rare signs of bipartisan agreement on rail safety. Will Washington act? | CNN Politics

    Editor’s Note: Watch East Palestine, Ohio, residents pose questions to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “A CNN Town Hall: Toxic Train Disaster, Ohio Residents Speak Out” airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    A fiery train wreck that released toxic materials in an Ohio town is raising new questions in the halls of the nation’s capital over the regulation of the rail industry and if stricter measures could have prevented the disaster.

    News of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment – and its potential harmful effects on the environment and health of local residents – has propelled both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to press the Biden administration on whether there’s enough oversight to keep rail workers and communities near railroads safe. And the supervising agency broadly responsible for regulating rail safety, the Department of Transportation, is calling on Congress to make it easier to institute safety reforms.

    This rare, general bipartisan agreement about taking action in the wake of the derailment follows years of Republicans generally supporting deregulation of the rail industry, including with the broad rollback of transportation rules during the Trump administration.

    Unions, current and former regulatory officials, and members of Congress from both parties have signaled some optimism about the possibility that the Ohio disaster may mark a rare opportunity for Washington to get something done to enhance the rail industry’s safety standards. But what’s unclear is whether there’s enough momentum for both parties in Congress to propel the issue forward into tangible actions. Nor is it clear whether the rail industry’s strong lobbying efforts will pare down any proposed measures or play a hand in eliminating them altogether.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that that he’s fed up with the rail industry’s pressure campaigns to diminish regulatory reforms.

    “I’ve had it,” he said. “We have had situation after situation where even modest, reasonable reform gets just a full court press.”

    “I do think if the railroads, like Norfolk Southern, are in a mode right now where they’re saying, ‘We’re going to do everything it takes and everything we can.’ Let’s give them a chance to show it,” Buttigieg later added. “But let’s be very clear, I’m not waiting for them to do this work. I’m just saying they have a chance to put their money where their mouth is.”

    Experts point out several areas of opportunity to enhance rail safety and hold rail companies further accountable: updating trains’ braking system, shortening the lengths of freight trains, further separating cars with hazardous material, requiring more crew member be on board, and increasing penalties.

    Many of these proposals, experts say, have been around for decades, and have oftentimes been diminished or entirely eliminated after rail lobbying efforts. Data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets show that Norfolk Southern spent $1.8 million on federal lobbying last year.

    Norfolk Southern posted record profits from railway operations of $4.8 billion in 2022, up from its previous record of $4.45 billion in 2021. The company did not respond to questions Wednesday on whether it expects to change its share repurchase plans in the wake of the derailment.

    “Unfortunately, derailments like this are preventable and they become inevitable when there’s more risk in the system,” Sarah Feinberg, a former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration during the Obama administration, told CNN. “The industry has fought tooth and nail against safety regulations, but I also think that’s typical of any industry.”

    Lobbying influence from the rail industry is “a big problem and they have a stranglehold on Congress, especially in the Senate,” Greg Hynes, national legislative director for the SMART Transportation Division union, told CNN.

    “It’s all about the bottom line and they adhere to the operating ratios that Wall Street is so hungry for, which includes lowering head counts – which includes fewer safety inspections, fewer brake tests, fewer people doing the job that they need to do,” he added.

    Buttigieg recently sent a letter Sunday to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw demanding accountability and calling for greater safety regulations. And DOT subsequently announced on Tuesday that it would take a three-pronged approach to enhance rail safety – push companies to voluntarily adopt additional safety measures, call on Congress to do more and bolster administration efforts to regulate the industry.

    Among other plans to advance existing efforts or deploy existing funding, DOT says it’s initiating focused safety inspections as well as pursuing additional federal rulemaking on high-hazard flammable trains and electronically controlled pneumatic brakes.

    DOT also says it’s working to advance a proposed rule that would require a minimum of two crew members for most railroad operations. Leadership for Norfolk Southern met with Buttigieg and other DOT officials and expressed concerns about the proposed rule. Among other issues, Norfolk Southern argues it will lead to significant labor costs

    Crucial to efforts to enhance rail safety, administration officials and rail experts say, is Congress’ ability to untie the executive branch’s hands.

    DOT is asking Congress to increase the maximum fines that can be issued to rail companies for violating safety regulations. And similar to its regulatory efforts announced Tuesday, DOT is calling on Congress to expand the rules “governing high-hazardous shipments, including high-hazard flammable trains, pushing past industry opposition” and follow through “on new bipartisan support to modernize braking regulations and increase the use of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes.”

    “The apparatus that exists was to allow safety regulators to write and finalize common sense safety regulations that will protect people – protect their homes, protect their water, protect their children, protect their health – it’s totally broken,” Feinberg said. “And the reason it’s totally broken is because the Congress and others – other administrations – will insert themselves into the process and take it over … from safety regulators and say, ‘I know better and I’m going to protect the industry from whatever you’re trying to force its hand on.’”

    The American Association of Railroads, an industry group, has said that “until NTSB has completed their investigation, AAR will not comment on potential policy changes in relation to this event as the cause and any underlying factors have not yet been fully determined.” The NTSB is set to release a preliminary report on the derailment investigation Thursday morning.

    Congressional committees are set to review the environmental and safety impacts of the East Palestine derailment. Although efforts to enhance regulatory oversight of the rail industry have generally broken along party lines, some Republicans and Democrats appear to be moving in the same direction.

    Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, sent a letter last week to seven of the largest railroad company CEOs, inquiring about safety practices involved in rail transportation of hazardous materials. She’s also requested a joint staff-level briefing with the Environment and Public Works Committee, asking federal transportation and environmental agencies to appear, according to Politico.

    House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, scheduled a bipartisan briefing for members of the committee last week, and there may be further briefings for committee and all House members to help keep them informed of the status and relevant issues, Graves’ office told CNN.

    Republican Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida sent a letter to DOT requesting information about the administration’s regulatory oversight, questioning whether the three crew members on board the Norfolk Southern train that derailed were enough to staff the 149-car locomotive.

    Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the leading Republican on the Senate Commerce committee, last week tweeted that he fully agreed with Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who wrote, in part, “We need Congressional inquiry and direct action from [Buttigieg] to address this tragedy.”

    Republican candidates for president Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump have criticized President Joe Biden for not visiting the site of the derailment, arguing that his trip to Ukraine and Poland this week shows he’s more focused on a foreign crisis than what’s happening at home – an increasingly frequent critique of the president and his administration.

    Trump – whose administration sidelined the pending rule to require freight trains to have at least two crew members – appeared in East Palestine on Wednesday alongside Vance.

    Rubio and Buttigieg, meanwhile, are in a spat – with the secretary suggesting the senator was previously parroting lines from the rail industry and Rubio calling for Buttigieg’s resignation.

    “Anybody who has seen fit to get on television and talk about this incident, talk about this issue, can do right by the people of East Palestine and everybody else who lives near a railroad,” Buttigieg told CNN. “Not just when it comes to this case, but when it comes to the future, by getting on the right side of this issue, and helping to raise – not lower – the bar of accountability for the railroad industry.”

    Biden on Wednesday posted on Instagram about his phone call with his EPA Administrator Michael Regan and officials from Ohio and Pennsylvania to discuss the East Palestine situation. He also accused the Trump administration of limiting the ability to strengthen rail safety measures and said some of his current Republican critics were trying to dismantle the EPA.

    “The Department of Transportation has made clear to rail companies that their pattern of resisting safety regulations has got to change,” the caption stated. “Congress should join us in implementing rail safety measures. But the Department of Transportation is limited in the rail safety measures they can implement. Why? For years, elected officials – including the last (administration) – have limited our ability to implement and strengthen rail safety measures.”

    Following repeated calls for Buttigieg to visit the Ohio site, the secretary said earlier this week that he intended to visit East Palestine when the time was right. And then on Wednesday, DOT announced that he would visit on Thursday.

    A DOT spokesperson said Buttigieg had planned to go when it was “appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts. The Secretary is going now that the EPA has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.”

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  • Norfolk Southern is paying $6.5 million to derailment victims. Meanwhile, it’s shelling out $7.5 billion for shareholders | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern is paying $6.5 million to derailment victims. Meanwhile, it’s shelling out $7.5 billion for shareholders | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged Tuesday the freight railroad will spend $6.5 million to help those affected by the release of toxic chemicals from its derailment nearly three weeks ago in East Palestine, Ohio. But in a plan released earlier this year, the company said it’s planning to spend more than a thousand times that amount — $7.5 billion — to repurchase its own shares in order to benefit its shareholders.

    The company spent $3.4 billion on share repurchases last year, and $3.1 billion in 2021, bringing its recent share repurchases to $6.5 billion. That towers over what it said is its financial commitment to East Palestine, which it said exceeds $6.4 million in direct aid to families and government agencies, in addition to what will be required in cleanup costs.

    There is no estimate as to the total cost to Norfolk Southern from the derailment, including the cost of cleanup that the Environmental Protection Agency says will be the railroad’s responsibility.

    It’s not clear how much of the accident’s cost will fall on Norfolk Southern. The company revealed Wednesday during a conference call with investors that it has as much as $1.1 billion worth of liability insurance coverage that it can draw upon to compensate third parties for losses caused by the accident. It also has about $200 million worth of insurance coverage to cover damage to its own property, such as tracks or equipment.

    In March 2022, Norfolk Southern

    (NSC)     announced a new $10 billion share repurchase plan. Its latest annual financial report, filed just hours before the derailment this month, shows that it still had $7.5 billion available to buy additional shares under that repurchase plan as of December 31.

    Norfolk Southern did not respond to questions Wednesday on whether it expects to change its share repurchase plans in the wake of the derailment.

    The company also returned an additional $1.2 billion to shareholders in the form of dividend payments in 2022, and $1 billion in 2021, bringing total payments to shareholders to $4.6 billion last year and $4.1 billion in 2021.

    The shareholders did much better than the company’s 19,000 employees. Total employee compensation in 2022 came to $2.6 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2021.

    The amount that Norfolk Southern and other major freight railroads are spending on shareholders got a lot of attention in December, when they successfully fought a move in Congress to require them to give hourly workers at least seven sick days a year as part of a labor contract imposed on the industry by Congress in order to avoid an economically crippling rail strike. And it’s getting new attention in the wake of the derailment, along with questions about whether the environmental disaster could have been avoided if the railroad had spent more on staffing and safety.

    “Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers,” said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “They don’t invest in safety rules and safety regulations, and this kind of thing happens.”

    The accident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. While the cause has yet to be determined, it is known that freight railroads have fought tougher safety rules in the past.

    One rule the industry successfully fought would have required a more modern braking system on trains carrying significant amounts of hazardous materials. The Federal Railroad Administration, which proposed the rule under the Obama administration, estimated a more modern braking system would reduce by nearly 20% the number of rail cars in a derailment that puncture and release their contents.

    The FRA estimated those better brakes would cost the entire industry $493 million, spread over a period of 20 years. The Association of American Railroads, the trade industry group that represents most US freight railroads, estimated a much greater cost — about $3 billion, but again, spread over 20 years. That would mean around $150 million a year for an entire industry that is earning billions of dollars of annual profits.

    Still, it was able to block the rule from ever taking effect, based partly on the argument it was too costly for the potential benefit.

    “The railroads are quick to point out their lack of funds to provide adequate staffing, paid sick leave and improved safety, yet they have billions of dollars to spend on stock repurchases,” said Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the industry’s second-largest union behind the one that represents conductors.

    Share repurchases are designed to help increase the value of the stock by reducing the number of shares outstanding.

    In theory, each remaining share becomes more valuable since it represents a greater percentage of the company’s overall ownership. The earnings per share, a key measure used by investors to judge a company’s profitability, can rise even if the total dollars earned by the company goes down, as the pool of shares available to the public shrinks further.

    But Norfolk Southern’s profits aren’t going down. They’re going up — by quite a bit. It posted record profits from railway operations of $4.45 billion in 2021, and broke that record in 2022 when it earned $4.8 billion on that basis.

    Other freight railroads are also reporting improving profits, and have joined Norfolk Southern in massive share repurchases.

    Union Pacific

    (UNP)     purchased $6.3 billion worth of shares in 2022, and has plans to purchase an additional 84 million shares, worth more than $16 billion at its current value. CSX repurchased $4.7 billion worth of shares last year and has plans to buy an additional $3.3 billion going forward. Like Norfolk Southern, both UP and CSX spent more on share repurchases than they did on total employee compensation.

    Share repurchases are not limited to the rail industry. Chevron

    (CVX)     recently announced plans to repurchase $75 billion worth of its stock with windfall record profits that came from high oil prices. Across corporate America, share repurchases reached almost $1 trillion for the first time last year, coming in at $936 billion according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, up from $882 billion in 2021.

    Share repurchases are forecast to top $1 trillion this year.

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  • Norfolk Southern CEO defends railroad’s response to Ohio derailment | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern CEO defends railroad’s response to Ohio derailment | CNN Business


    East Palestine, Ohio
    CNN
     — 

    Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw defended his company’s actions since the disaster caused by the derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine, Ohio, and promised the railroad will pay for the cleanup.

    “Norfolk Southern is committed to the community and citizens of East Palestine,” Shaw told CNN Tuesday. “We’re going to be here today, we’re going to be here tomorrow, we’re going to be here a year from now and we’re going to be here five years from now.”

    Shaw’s defense of his company came as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro charged that Norfolk Southern’s “corporate greed, incompetence and lack of care for our residents is absolutely unacceptable to me.” He announced that his state has made a criminal referral to investigate the railroad’s handling of the derailment, which occurred near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line.

    Shaw said the company has already paid out $6.5 million to citizens living near the site of the derailment 19 days ago that ignited a days-long inferno, shot plumes of black smoke into the air and led to the intentional release of vinyl chloride to help avert a more catastrophic blast.

    Shaw said the railroad has been in agreement with the actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local efforts on the ground in East Palestine since the train derailment.

    “From day one I’ve made the commitment that Norfolk Southern is going to remediate the site,” Shaw said. “We’re going to do it through continuous long-term air and water monitoring. We’re going to help the residents of this community recover and we’re going to invest in the long-term health of this community and we’re going to make Norfolk Southern a safer railroad.”

    In response to a question about a criminal referral being sent to the Pennsylvania attorney general and criticism from the governor of Pennsylvania that Norfolk Southern provided officials with inaccurate information, conflicting models of data and refused to explore alternative courses of action with the derailment in the early days, Shaw said he did not see the press conference where these statements were made and could not respond.

    He went on to describe coordination during the controlled burn and release after the derailment.

    “I was at unified command, and I can tell you that the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Mayor Conaway, Fire Chief Drabick, the National Guard and Norfolk Southern were aligned,” Shaw said in an interview with CNN Tuesday. “The controlled burn — controlled release was the safest course of action for the citizens of East Palestine.”

    Shaw said Norfolk Southern has been coordinating with the Ohio EPA and local officials and, so far, has been very present in the community since the February 3 accident. He said he first came to East Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the accident and visited a family assistance center that the company put in place, where he checked in on residents, making sure that they had everything that they needed.

    “We’re also very focused on reimbursing the residents in this community for what they’ve been through so far,” he said.

    There are no estimates from the railroad or public officials as yet as to the costs of the accident, either from clean-up or compensation to the communities and residents.

    Norfolk Southern “started as soon as the derailment occurred,” he said. “Within an hour we had air testing in place and about an hour after that we had water testing in place.”

    Shaw said his company continues to monitor air and water quality and has conducted hundreds of tests with thousands of data points, “all of which have come back clean.”

    In an interview on CNBC, Shaw said if East Palestine was his home, he would be OK having his own children return to the town, saying that Tuesday was the third day he has been on the site since the derailment.

    “I know they’re hurt. I know they’re scared. I know they’re confused,” he said of local residents. “They’re looking for information about who to trust. I encourage them to ask questions. They’re going to see that all the testing, whether it’s done by the EPA or local health officials or our independent contractors, show that it’s safe to return to this community.”

    “This has been a traumatic experience. All toxicity reports, all the testing shows that we’re clean. However if folks are experiencing symptoms with which they’re not accustomed, I would strongly encourage them to go see a trusted medical professional,” he said.

    He said that while testing of water and air have come back safe so far, “if folks in this community want additional air testing in their homes, they’ll get it. If folks in this community want additional water testing, they’ll get it. If folks in this community want bottled water, they’re going to get it.”

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  • A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

    A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    On the eve of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, American infrastructure is back in the worst kind of spotlight.

    The fiery derailment of train cars carrying hazardous chemicals on the eastern edge of Ohio has led to an evacuation zone across both Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    Five of the derailed train cars are carrying vinyl chloride – a chemical that is currently unstable and could explode, hurling toxic fumes into the air and shooting deadly shrapnel as far as a mile away, officials said.

    “There is a high probability of a toxic gas release and/or explosion,” Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin warned. “Please, for your own safety, remove your families from danger.”

    The derailment is, of course, felt most acutely in the surrounding community, where residents who don’t evacuate face arrest. But the incident also highlights the exact kind of concern that led to a considerable investment in rail projects as part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure law passed in late 2021.

    To better understand the derailment in Ohio, and how current or future legislation could help avoid similar situations, we turned to Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California.

    Our conversation, conducted over the phone and lightly edited for flow and brevity, is below.

    Since the fire in Ohio is still burning, investigators haven’t been able to walk around the crash site.

    But officials have identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the crew.

    LEBLANC: What are the investigators going to be looking into here?

    MESHKATI: This accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is an independent federal safety investigation organization. They do a very good job and thorough job, independently.

    They will look at this accident from an interdisciplinary standpoint. They’ll look for equipment failure, they’ll look for mental fatigue, the signaling electronics, and also they will look at the human factors and organizational safety culture.

    The other organization that most probably will do an investigation is the Federal Railroad Administration, which is a regulatory agency, part of the Department of Transportation.

    NTSB typically does an excellent job, and the FRA. Hopefully they will come up with some recommendations to proactively address this issue.

    LEBLANC: How often do these recommendations actually turn into new policies or guidance?

    MESHKATI: That’s an excellent question without an excellent answer.

    The National Transportation Safety Board, they issue a report at the end of the year. They have something which is called the “most wanted list” that they put their recommendations for safety improvement for railroads on based on accident investigations.

    And then it’s up to these different organizations or private sector regulatory agencies to implement recommendations. Again, NTSB doesn’t have enforcement power. They can make recommendations.

    Rail travel is recognized as the safest method of transporting hazardous materials in the US, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration.

    “The vast majority of hazardous materials shipped by rail tank car every year arrive safely and without incident, and railroads generally have an outstanding record in moving shipments of hazardous materials safely,” FRA says on its website.

    LEBLANC: How common is it for freight trains to carry hazardous material? Is it unusual?

    MESHKATI: No. They do that, and they do it fairly safely. Unfortunately, this type of thing happens, but they’re preventable because these are the types of accidents, if it’s a derailment – the causes of derailment are fairly understandable.

    It could be due to the mental fatigue or the tracks or it could be the speed or not following the procedures.

    Passenger and freight rail received $66 billion in the sprawling bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021. Implementation, however, will take years.

    LEBLANC: Once fully implemented, will the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package help prevent derailments similar to this one? Is there other legislation that could help?

    MESHKATI: I think money and funding is important, but what we need – this is my personal opinion based on my 38 years of research – what we need in the railroad industry is dedicated, committed leadership to safety.

    You can throw around as much money as much as you want. But see, here is the thing – technological systems are composed of three subsystems: a human subsystem, organizational subsystem and technological subsystem.

    And they are like the three links in a chain. A chain breaks at its weakest link. We can put all the money that we have on the technological subsystems, get the better tracks, get better computers, get better positive train control and everything.

    But what about the human and organizational subsystems? We need to give adequate attention to them. And that’s where a committed, informed leadership comes into play.

    When a freight train travels across the country, two people are in the cab of the locomotive working to keep the train, its often hazardous and flammable contents, and the communities they are passing through, all safe.

    Now the railroads are saying that, given today’s modern technology, just one person is enough. But the rail unions say single-person crews pose a tremendous safety risk, not just to the engineer working alone in the cab for hours on end, but to all the communities the trains pass through.

    LEBLANC: What are your thoughts on this proposal to staff freight trains with just one person?

    MESHKATI: I have studied this issue for many, many years.

    I’ve seen the disastrous impact that the consolidation and crew reduction could have on the safety of technological systems. This is something that we need to learn from other industries and just curb our irrational exuberance for this because the technology is available.

    Yes, there is an AI technology that can monitor the routine pattern.

    “That’s why we don’t need a human” – this is a very simple-minded, irrational exuberance.

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  • Railroad workers hopeful Biden will act to give workers paid sick time | CNN Business

    Railroad workers hopeful Biden will act to give workers paid sick time | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Railroad workers could get the paid sick days that were at the heart of their threat to go on strike – if the Biden administration steps in with an executive order.

    Workers have been unsuccessful getting their demands for paid sick leave met through months of negotiations with the freight rail companies, or through congressional action.

    But on Friday, 70 Democrats in Congress signed a letter asking for President Joe Biden or some federal agency to issue an order giving rail workers the seven sick days a year they were seeking.

    The letter pointed out that both the House and Senate supported legislation to do so, with some nominal Republican support in both chambers along with nearly unanimous Democratic support. But the legislation failed because it didn’t get the 60 votes it needed in the Senate.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from the unions’ congressional allies.

    But officials with the rail unions said they have been talking to the administration about some kind of executive action to get them the sick time they’ve been seeking, and that they are hopeful action could be forthcoming.

    “I mean, the Biden administration has been helpful,” said Greg Hynes, national legislative director for the transportation department of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail Transportation Union, (SMART-TD), the largest rail union representing about 28,000 conductors. “Of course, they want to do this. Whether they can do it, we’re going to find out.”

    The congressional letter said executive action, either by Biden himself, the Labor Department or the Federal Railroad Administration, is needed because the lack of paid sick days poses a safety hazard to the general public by having rail workers try to do their jobs when sick.

    “If a rail worker comes down with COVID, the flu, or some other illness and calls in sick, that worker will not only receive no pay, but will be penalized and, in some cases, fired. We cannot allow that to continue,” said the letter.

    The main lobbying group for the nation’s railroads, the Association of American Railroads, said it believes the question of sick days should be addressed in negotiations with the unions.

    “Following the conclusion of the latest bargaining round, the industry looks forward to using the new agreements as a springboard for further discussions on the structure of our paid leave benefits, enhancing schedule predictability, and addressing overall work-life balance interests,” said the AAR.

    “Railroads remain committed to working with their employees to address these priorities holistically and strike the right balance, be it as an industry or on a railroad-by-railroad basis with each union,” the AAR added.

    The railroads insist that the workers can use personal or vacation days if they are too sick to report to work.

    “If you wake up sick, no one wants you out on the railroad, and management does not want workers coming to work if they are sick,” said Ian Jefferies, CEO of the AAR, in an interview with CNN last month.

    The unions said that members could use their bank of paid time off when sick more easily in the past, but deep staff cuts in recent years have left the railroads so understaffed it is rare that workers can get approval to be off in those instances when they wake up not feeling well. If they do so, not only do they risk losing pay, they also risk being disciplined. And the AAR’s own statement on sick pay availability said workers can call off sick without penalty as long as “they maintain reasonable overall availability.”

    The Biden administration asked Congress to vote to block a strike by the unions that could have started this past Friday, saying a work stoppage would be too great a blow to the nation’s economy.

    The unions argued they needed the right to strike in order to win things they were seeking at the bargaining table, like sick days.

    But despite being disappointed most of the unions’ leadership have been restrained in criticizing Biden for imposing unpopular contracts on their members that did not include sick days.

    Asked if the reason that most union leaders did not criticize Biden’s decision was because they are hopeful that he will be willing to issue an executive order to get them the disputed sick days, Hynes replied, “I think you’re answering your own question.”

    The rail unions are planning rallies around the country in support of rail workers. The lack of sick days will be a major issue at the rallies.

    Among the speakers at the Washington DC rally will be Sen. Bernie Sanders, the main author of the congressional letter. That letter points out that President Barack Obama issued such a rule on federal contractors in 2015, but that it did not cover the unionized rail workers.

    “Over 115,000 rail workers in this country are looking to you to guarantee them the dignity at work they deserve and to ensure that our rail system is safe for its workers and for millions of Americans who cross rail tracks every day,” said the congressional letter. “Through executive order, agency rulemaking, and any other applicable authority, we ask that you take quick and decisive action to guarantee these workers paid sick leave.”

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  • The threat of a freight railroad strike is back — but not until next month | CNN Business

    The threat of a freight railroad strike is back — but not until next month | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    A union of railroad track maintenance workers has rejected a tentative agreement with the nation’s freight carriers, renewing the threat that there could be a strike that shuts down this vital link in the nation’s already struggling supply chain.

    The vote, announced Monday by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, was 43% in favor of the proposed five-year contract, and 57% opposed.

    About 12,000 of the 23,000 members of the BMWE participated in the vote. It is the third largest of the major freight railroad unions. The two largest freight unions, which represent the more than 50,000 engineers and conductors who make up the two-person train crews, are conducting the their own rank-and-file ratification vote by mail. Those votes will be counted on Nov. 17.

    The BWME said it will now enter negotiations with the association that represents management at the nation’s major freight railroads in an effort to reach a new deal. Without a new deal there could be a strike, but not until at least Nov. 19, according to the union. Things will remain status quo with the union’s contract until then.

    A statement from the association negotiating on behalf of railroad management said it was “disappointed” with the vote, but given that the two sides had decided to maintain the status quo, “the failed ratification does not present a risk of an immediate service disruption.”

    Even if the members of the two larger unions vote in favor of their deals, they would not report to work if the BMWE were to go on strike. And the fact that the BMWE voted down the contract is probably a sign that rank-and-file anger towards railroad management could lead to no votes at the two larger unions as well.

    “I think this is the canary in the coal mine for the engineers’ and conductors’ votes,” said Todd Vanchon, professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. “They were the ones you anticipate would reject a deal. The fact that the BMWE voted no suggests a no vote [by train crew members] is more likely.”

    The tentative labor deals were reached on Sept. 15 following a marathon 20-hour bargaining session that included direct intervention from President Joe Biden and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. The new contracts include an immediate 14% raise with back pay dating to 2020, and raises totaling 24% during the five-year life of the contract that runs from 2020 through 2024. They also gives union members cash bonuses of $1,000 a year. All told, the backpay and bonuses will give union members an average payment of $11,000 per worker once the deal is ratified.

    But the deal was difficult to reach not because of the financial terms, but because of work rules that unions said had brought engineers and conductors to a breaking point. Staffing shortages had required crew members to be on call seven days a week, ready to report to work at short notice. And union leadership said those rules, which were adjusted as part of the contract, had caused great anger at management among rank-and-file members.

    Despite that discord, the unions’ leadership expressed confidence that their members would ratify the deals, even if they didn’t get everything they wanted at the bargaining table.

    “I think we got everything we could,” Dennis Pierce, president of the engineers union, told CNN on the day the deal was reached. “And I think once our membership understands where we sit and what’s in it, I think it’ll ratify.”

    Numerous smaller unions have already approved the deal. The only group that initially rejected it, the Machinist union which represents about 5,000 mechanics for locomotives and track equipment and facility maintenance personnel, has subsequently reached a new tentative agreement without a strike. The Machinists’ rank and file is again considering that deal.

    The Biden administration was desperate to avoid a rail strike because of fears it would upend already strained supply chains. The major railroads carry 30% of the nation’s freight when measured by weight and distance traveled, and a strike could have caused shortages and higher prices for such essentials as food and gasoline, forced factories without parts to close down and left store shelves empty during the holiday shopping period. The only potential good news for the Biden administration is that if there is a strike, it would now take place after the midterm elections.

    Rank and file union member anger hasn’t just been expressed at railroads. Union members working in other industries have recently balked at approving deals, even when recommended by their unions’ leadership. Although most union contracts are ratified, there have been some very high-profile examples of angry union members voting no.

    About 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers at farm equipment maker John Deere went on strike last fall after rejecting a tentative agreement. That rejected offer included immediate raises in their base pay of 5% to 6%, and additional wage increases later in the contract that could have increased average pay by about 20% over the six years. And it had a cost-of-living adjustment that would give them additional pay based up future inflation.

    But more than 90% of the UAW members at Deere voted no and went on strike, and then stayed on strike after rejecting a subsequent deal. They finally returned to work after five weeks after a third vote on a similar package passed.

    Striking workers at cereal maker Kellogg

    (K)     also rejected a tentative deal and decided to stay on strike in December before finally agreeing to a deal weeks later.

    And only 50.3% of film production workers voted in favor of a deal last fall that achieved virtually all the bargaining goals of their union, a contract that averted a strike by 63,000 technicians, artisans and craftspeople which could have brought production of movies, television and streaming shows to a halt.

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