Railroads Make New Safety Commitments

 

Submitted by GoRail
 
Railroads help move the New York economy, a critical connector carrying roughly 9.7 million tons of freight annually across the state, hauling everything from intermodal goods, agricultural products, and critical bulk goods. Every year, freight railroads spend billions to maintain and grow their networks – and as a result New York businesses benefit from reliable and efficient rail service.
 
Today, rail safety is at the political and public forefront following the East Palestine derailment in February. But safety is always top of mind for railroads. The data tells this story, one where railroads are hitting new safety records consistently.
 
Recently the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released new safety data showing that the last decade was the safest ever, with metrics like the mainline accident rate and the track-caused accident rate down 44% and 55% respectively since 2000.
 
Indeed, rail carriers routinely exceed federal safety mandates across all aspects of operations, and they’ve also consistently called for tougher safety standards like tank car improvements. In fact, the haz-mat accident rate is the lowest it’s ever been based on preliminary Bureau of Explosives data, with a 78% decrease since 2000.
 
Getting to Zero
 
Still, rail companies recognize that the ultimate goal is a future with no accidents or injuries. The Association of American Railroads announced safety measures that railroads as an industry would be taking together in the “drive to zero accidents.”
 
“Rail is indisputably the safest way to move dangerous commodities,” said AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies. “Yet we fully appreciate that these data do not comfort the residents of East Palestine and that public trust must be restored through action. Until we achieve our goal of zero, we will maintain our fierce commitment to getting there.”
 
There were seven new safety measures announced by the AAR in total, with a focus on preventing incidents though increased emphasis on hot bearing detection. The spacing between these detectors, per a commitment from all Class I railroads, will decrease from 40 miles to 15 miles on key routes. The temperature threshold that triggers an inspection will also now be lowered across the industry, and railroads will share trending data to identify bearings that need to be proactively addressed.
 
Community Preparedness
 
While railroads work to close the accident gap through steady investment and technological innovation, it is still vital to work with communities on preparedness.
 
To this end, rail companies train roughly 20,000 state and local emergency responders every year on handling rail incidents. About 2,000 of these officials every year receive immersive training with full-scale scenarios at the world-class Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) in Pueblo, Colo. SERTC is a member of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), which fully funds local, state, tribal, and territorial first responders to attend any of SERTC’s DHS/FEMA-certified courses. You can find the 2023 course schedule here.
 
Additionally, TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness Emergency Response) is an outreach program covering North America. The organization has focused on assisting communities and training emergency responders to prepare for and respond to hazardous material transportation incidents. CSX railroad will be hosting TRANSCAER this fall for training in Albany. Several sessions are available September 11-20, 2023.
 
Another safety commitment of railroads is to expand access of its mobile app, AskRail, to more first responders. Currently, about 50,000 first responders can use the app to obtain instant information about the haz-mat a railcar is carrying. Railroads want to double this number by the end of the year. They’re also increasing outreach to state fire associations to bolster app enrollment.
 
Rail ultimately remains the safest way to move dangerous commodities like haz-mat – we see this in the data. Yet rail carriers are striving every day to improve this record because no accidents are acceptable accidents to the communities that railroads connect.