INSIDER
The federal government is handing out $2.4 billion in railroad grants to help pay for 122 projects nationwide with more than half of the money going to smaller railroads.
A new report says the U.S. has seen an increase in the number of a certain kind of derailment related to the forces created when railcars push and pull against each other as freight trains have gotten longer.
The CSX worker who discovered his friend run over by a pair of remote-control locomotives last year sees two-person crews as a simple solution to preventing similar deaths.
Freight railroad BNSF is generally striving to improve safety on a consistent basis but that message doesn’t always reach front-line workers who often don’t feel comfortable reporting safety concerns for fear of being disciplined.
Federal regulators say Union Pacific managers undermined their efforts to assess safety at the railroad by coaching employees on how to respond and suggesting they might be disciplined.
BNSF will become the second major freight railroad to allow some of its employees to report safety concerns anonymously through a federal system without fear of discipline.
Major freight railroads will have to maintain two-person crews in most circumstances under a new federal rule.
The major freight railroads all promised safety improvements after the fiery derailment in eastern Ohio a year ago, but they have yet to make meaningful safety improvements and reform efforts have stalled in Congress.
About 1,000 Norfolk Southern engineers and conductors will soon be able to report safety concerns anonymously through a federal system without any fear of discipline.
Passenger railroads nationwide will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives.
Norfolk Southern's CEO pledged to continue working to improve safety after the consultant the railroad hired after the fiery Ohio derailment in February recommended making sure that safety is truly a priority at all levels and continuing many of the efforts it has already begun.
The major freight railroads say a disagreement over whether they will be allowed to discipline some workers who use a government hotline to report safety concerns has kept them from following through on the promise they made back in March to join the program after a fiery Ohio derailment prompted calls for reforms.
Regulators say Norfolk Southern has made improvements since a fiery Ohio derailment but still falls well short of being the “gold standard for safety” it is striving to be.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced on Monday it rewarded over $24.3 million to Michigan in Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE.)
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has proposed legislation that would make railroads, like the one involved in last month’s fiery crash and toxic chemical release in Ohio, subject to a series of new federal safety regulations and financial consequences.
Federal regulators are urging freight railroads to reexamine the way they use and maintain the detectors along the tracks that are supposed to spot overheating bearings in the wake of the fiery Ohio derailment and several other recent crashes where faulty bearings are suspected to be the cause.
Railroads will be required to maintain two-person crews under a new rule announced Wednesday that will thwart the industry’s efforts to cut crews down to one person.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced $30 million in rail infrastructure funding for Michigan. The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program awarded $368 million to 46 projects across 32 states and Michigan’s projects were selected.
