Rail safety reform continues to get the brake

Those hoping for railroad companies to move on their own toward improved safety for their workers and the communities through which their trains run will have to wait a bit longer. More than two and a half years since a Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, not one of the larger freight railroads in the country has signed on to the Confidential Close Call Reporting System, a voluntary federal program that was meant to reduce rail hazards and prevent accidents. According to a report by the Associated Press, BNSF and Norfolk Southern did attempt partial trials, but have not actually joined the program. Remember, Congress has simply refused to move on rail safety reform since the incident in East Palestine. Despite saying back in March 2023 that he was "determined to make this right," Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw appears to have decided the voluntary approach to improving safety isn't for them, either. There is so little interest in improving rail safety by those who could actually do something about it that a federal working group formed to negotiate railroad participation in the close call program has been disbanded. "We had an opportunity as a group to make things better and make things safer, and we didn't do it," said Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the advocacy organization the Rail Passengers Association, and a member of the working group. Though the National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for a voluntary reporting system for years, not even a deadly accident in Pennsylvania in 2016 — which the NTSB says could have been prevented by a close call reporting system — has convinced corporate and political stakeholders to do better. "We go through a lot of people's backyards on the railroad. I think the general public doesn't know it, but they have a huge stake in C3RS as well," said Scott Bunten, a Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen general chairman who helped coordinate Norfolk Southern's trial program. We DO know it. In fact, the general public is paying very close attention to the politicians and railroad corporate officers who have rejected attempts to improve rail safety. While we can't do much about the consciences of railroad execs, we do have a little say in whether the political careers of members of Congress are derailed. If doing the right thing is not enough to convince them to move forward on rail safety reform, perhaps that will. Ogden Newspapers