Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) says its systems are back online after an outage impacted the railroad’s operations on Monday.
Service was restored around 7 p.m. Monday, according to a statement from the company, but the impacts could be felt for at least a couple of weeks.
In a statement, the company said there’s no indication the disruption was related to cybersecurity, noting it was a “hardware-related technology outage.” It impacted freight, commuter and passenger service.
“We are safely bringing our rail network back online,” the statement reads. “Throughout this, we have been in contact with our customers and will work with them on updated timing for their shipments.
Norfolk Southern is currently under scrutiny for its handling of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Thirty-eight rail cars derailed during the accident and a fire ensued, damaging an additional 12 cars. No fatalities or injuries were reported, although there was a 1-mile evacuation zone due to the release of hazardous materials. Days after the derailment, Norfolk Southern and officials decided to vent and burn the tank cars carrying vinyl chloride because of concerns that one of the cars could pose an explosion hazard.
Earlier this month, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration called on Norfolk Southern to review its safety practices, and the Railway Safety Act of 2023 is awaiting debate on the Senate floor.
Jorge B.
UIIA requires that Norfolk Southern (NS) and Equipment Providers (Ocean Carriers and Chassis Pools) provide TIR/EIRs at time of interchange.
Through this NS outage, and previous ones as NS systems go down consistently throughout the year, NS refuses to provide motor carriers with manual TIR records, claiming instead they’ll process the data they wrote down when system returns.
There are 3 problems with this.
1 — This is a violation if UIIA terms: UIIA regulations under Section D.2.a. of the UIIA that states, “At the time of Interchange, the Parties or their agents shall execute an Equipment Interchange Receipt and/or exchange an electronic receipt equivalent….”, along with Section D.2.c, that states, “Each Party shall be entitled to receive a copy and/or an electronic receipt equivalent of the EIR described in D.2.a.”
2 — NS will often neglect to input several ingates once system is up, resulting in additional costs invoiced by chassis companies (chassis rent) and ocean carriers (container per diem) as neither receive termination records via EDI.
3 — If NS begins entering manually collected data the day AFTER the shutdown, they’ll won’t backdate the entry to ACTUAL interchange date, applying instead the data entry date. This is the case with event reported here from 8/28/23 shut down, with units terminated that day being entered as 8/29/23. Here again chassis pools and ocean carriers will invoice based on 8/29 termination thereby billing illegitimate charges.
This systematic practice by NS has reported to UIIA who’ve taken no disciplinary actions to ensure future compliance. Similar for chassis pools and ocean carriers, no significant action to ensure TIR/EIRs are provided on day of interchange, in all giving the appearance of indifference and possibly collusion in the interest of permitting NS neglect to generate additional, albeit illegal, revenue.
FMC should look into this in its continuous efforts to curb D&D-related violations.