Mr Jefferies said the railways had taken several steps after the East Palestine accident to improve safety. Previously, the industry required railroads to stop and remove a railcar if the temperature of a wheel bearing reached 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In July, the association demanded this 170 degree action. (The East Palestine train’s wheel roll at one point reached 253 degrees, according to a trackside detector.)
Union Pacific, the largest railroad in the United States in terms of track miles, reported a 32 percent increase in accidents during this period. Kristen South, a company spokeswoman, said some accidents, such as those caused by objects on the track, are beyond the railroad’s control and the focus should be on “serious” derailments, a category which she said fell 5 percent last year at Union. Peaceful.
BNSF, the second-largest U.S. railroad, owned by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, recorded a 10 percent increase in accidents during the period. Kendall Kirkham Sloan, a BNSF spokesperson, said the company is the safest railroad in the country, based on federal safety measures, and that accidents are reduced through training and technology.
CSX, the third largest railroad, reported a 31 percent increase in accidents during the 10-month period. Bryan Tucker, a spokesman, said the company’s safety performance had been “tested” by hiring many new employees after the pandemic, but last year it strengthened its training, which contributed to a sharp drop in accidents in the fourth quarter. As a result, CSX on Wednesday reported a slightly lower accident rate — which measures accidents as a percentage of distances traveled by trains — in 2023 than in 2022. (The total number of accidents increased again.)
The total performance of the five railroads would have been worse last year without a significant improvement at Norfolk Southern, which reported 29 accidents in the first 10 months of 2023 on its main lines, down 37 percent from 46 from the same period of 2022. .