NS issues full-year report on East Palestine recovery efforts

Norfolk Southern Railway yesterday released a report detailing its actions over the past year to help East Palestine, Ohio, recover from the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment of an NS hazmat train.

While NS has made "measurable progress" during the past year, more work remains, NS President and CEO Alan Shaw wrote in the report's introduction.

"The road to recovery is just the start; we’ll be here as long as it takes for these communities to truly flourish," the letter stated.

To date, NS has committed more than $103 million to East Palestine and areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Since NS issued its six-month progress report, the Class I has:
• provided a $500,000 grant for economic development;
• pledged nearly $4.3 million to support upgrades to drinking water infrastructure;
• broke ground in East Palestine on the First Responder Training Center;
• completed the initial intensive phase of environmental remediation;
• announced the next phase of our community assistance program;
• began implementing changes based on the independent review by Atkins Nuclear Secured; and
• made significant progress on its Six Point Action Plan for Safety.

Air, soil and drinking water tests continue to show the environment around the site is safe, Shaw wrote.

"Our work in East Palestine is pivoting from environmental remediation — the main imperative of the first six months of recovery — to helping build up the economic resiliency of the area," he said. "This process has already begun."

To read the full report, click here.