NS derailment prompts lawmakers to craft rail safety bill, FRA to create hazmat initiative

U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and JD Vance (R-Ohio) yesterday announced plans to soon introduce the Railway Safety Act of 2023 to prevent train derailments like the Norfolk Southern Railway accident that occurred Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio.

The bill would require various rail safety improvements, such as enhancing safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials, establishing requirements for wayside defect detectors, creating a permanent requirement for railroads to operate with at least two-person crews and increasing fines for wrongdoing by railroads.

"These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again," Brown said in a press release.

Brown and Vance plans to introduce the bill with U.S. Sens. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)

According to Brown's office, the following rail labor unions will support the bill: the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers’ Transportation Division; Transport Workers Union of America; Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees; and Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.

Meanwhile, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday unveiled a national initiative calling for focused inspections on routes used by trains carrying high-hazard flammables or large volumes of hazardous materials.

Working with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the FRA plans to immediately identify the routes and prioritize them for inspections, which will begin in East Palestine and expand to other communities nationwide.
 
Using a combination of human visual inspections and automated track inspection technology, FRA inspectors will assess the overall condition of rail infrastructure and railroads’ compliance with regulatory track requirements. Information will be shared with railroads and rail labor organizations, and will be periodically published to increase public transparency, FRA officials said in a press release.

“As a result of the recent [NS] derailment, we are ramping up our safety efforts across the country,” said FRA Administrator Amit Bose. “The data that [the inspections] yield will allow us, as well as railroads, labor, and state and local governments, to implement better-informed decisions and policies regarding rail safety.”