railroad safety

OSHA has warned CSX against retaliating against employees who raise safety concerns.

What are stakeholders in the freight rail space keeping an eye on in 2024? Here’s a starter list.

Election-year politics and the NTSB report on the East Palestine derailment are key factors in whether Congress will pass rail safety legislation in 2024, industry observers say.

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way – Employes Division is continuing to express its disappointment over planned furloughs at Union Pacific. But UP insists that it will call back furloughed employees as the railway pursues rail service and safety goals.

Will Congress pass any rail safety bills before 2023 ends? One consultant thinks the answer is probably no.

Using technology to assess adverse weather impacts in real time and working with other railroads to adopt best practices were two of the Federal Railroad Administration’s recommendations.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and Norfolk Southern, with technical input from the Federal Railroad Administration, will conduct a one-year pilot program to identify best safety practices.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen wants the Federal Railroad Administration to issue an emergency order prohibiting freight train lengths greater than 7,500 feet.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said a new rule calling for passenger trains to have inward- and outward-facing image recording devices should also have applied to freight trains.

The National Transportation Safety Board will focus on CSX’s safety training of railway carmen as the agency continues investigating the death of a carman at a CSX yard in Ohio.

President Joe Biden wants Norfolk Southern and federal agencies to stay involved in recovery efforts in East Palestine, Ohio, where an NS train carrying hazardous materials derailed on Feb. 3.

Rail union leaders want the industry to examine safety practices involving remote-controlled locomotives following the Sunday death of a railway carman at a CSX rail yard in Ohio.

Atkins Nuclear Secured released its initial findings on how Norfolk Southern can bolster its safety culture.

Union Pacific is asking the Federal Railroad Administration for more details on the safety defects that federal inspectors reportedly found during focused inspections this summer.

Union Pacific plans to respond this week to concerns of Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose that the railroad is being cavalier in ensuring its locomotives are safe.

House Oversight Committee Republicans are accusing U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg of not acting on the DOT inspector general’s recommendations for improving aviation and rail safety.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is temporarily suspending a 2020 rule that allows the transport of liquefied natural gas in specialized cryogenic tank cars.

The National Transportation Safety Board will focus on employee training methods and industry practices on clearance as it continues its investigation of an Aug. 6 conductor trainee fatality at a Maryland CSX rail yard.

The Association of American Railroads says a federal program in which employees can anonymously report safety concerns has the potential for misuse.

SMART-TD is telling freight train conductors and conductor trainees to take charge of their safety since the programs offered by railroads are lacking. This is following the recent deaths of two conductor trainees.