Rail safety a top concern at House subcommittee hearing
1/27/2025
By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor
It’s been nearly two years since a Norfolk Southern Railway train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, with some of the cars releasing hazardous materials into the environment. National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded a rail car’s defective wheel bearing on a hopper car failed and overheated, causing 38 of the train’s rail cars to derail and some to catch fire. Eleven of the cars were carrying hazmat, some of which was released.
Days later, a decision was made locally to conduct a vent and controlled burn involving toxic chemicals in five of the train’s tank cars. The controlled burn resulted in an ominous, dark cloud of smoke hovering over the town, causing community members to fear for their health and safety.
Although numerous congressional hearings were held on the incident and subsequently legislation was introduced, the 118th Congress ultimately failed to pass the proposed Rail Safety Act.
However, if a Jan. 23 hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials was any indication, rail safety will continue to be of prime importance to some lawmakers in both parties during the 119th Congress.
Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) called the hearing “America Builds: Examining America’s Freight and Passenger Rail Network” to hear testimony that could help shape the surface transportation reauthorization bill that lawmakers are expected to begin preparing this year. The current legislation — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — expires in 2026.
“We think locking [the crew-size mandate] into current operating practices is counterintuitive to the continued progress of the industry’s progress.” — Ian Jefferies, Association of American Railroads Association of American Railroads In his opening statement, Webster said the reauthorization legislation will support building the nation’s rail network by “cutting red tape, improving safety through technology and innovation, encouraging private sector involvement and competition and decreasing dependence on government funding and control.”
Witnesses testifying before the subcommittee were Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association President Chuck Baker, National Construction and Maintenance Association Chairman Joseph Daloisio III, and SMART-TD's National Safety and Legislative Director Jared Cassity.
Although the lawmakers and industry representatives agreed the industry’s investment in innovation and technology were key to improving the safety of railroads and railroading, at least one witness — AAR’s Jefferies — did not agree that a new Federal Railroad Administration rule mandating a minimum train crew size of two people would reduce train derailments and accidents.
“There is no data to show that regulation advances safety,” said Jefferies, in response to a subcommittee member’s question about the most onerous regulations on the industry.
Jefferies noted that train crew size has long been a matter of collective bargaining between rail carriers and their employees.
“The idea that Republicans will do whatever big business wants — and will not take into account the needs of the working man — is outdated.” — U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) nehls.house.gov“And that’s where it belongs,” he said. “We think locking [the crew-size mandate] into current operating practices is counterintuitive to the continued progress of the industry’s progress.”
Labor representative Cassity disagreed, however.
“Every single day, accidents are prevented in this country because of the presence of a two-person crew, yet no reports or data are collected to measure those successes,” Cassity said in his written testimony. “If we were to collect them, it would reveal why the advent of the two-person crew has brought about the safest and wealthiest era in railroading history.”
A two-person train crew mandate had some bipartisan support as part of proposed rail safety legislation in the 118th Congress. Although a major rail safety bill didn’t pass during that Congress, the FRA in 2024 adopted a rule requiring two-person crew minimums under certain circumstances.
Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Dina Titus (D-N.V.) and member Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who chaired the rail subcommittee last year, both said they want a two-person crew measure included in the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization bill.
Titus said she was pleased to hear U.S. Transportation Secretary nominee Sean Duffy, in his confirmation hearing in the Senate earlier this month, indicate his support for a two-person crew mandate.
“I hope we can hold him to that, and work with the [Trump] administration to get rail safety legislation and a number of safety improvements across the finish line in this Congress,” Titus said.
Nehls noted that Vice President J.D. Vance – as a senator from Ohio when the East Palestine derailment occurred in 2023 – introduced rail safety legislation that included a two-person crew size rule that was supported by then-former President Trump. Like Titus, Nehls also mentioned that Duffy confirmed he would not pull back the rule.
“As a member of this committee, I support that rule,” said Nehls. “The idea that Republicans will do whatever big business wants — and will not take into account the needs of the working man— is outdated. I will just say that dog doesn’t hunt.”
Nehls said his other rail-safety priorities for the surface transportation reauthorization legislation will include continued funding for the FRA’s Rail Crossing Elimination Grant Program — something that the AAR and ASLRRA support as an essential way to improve rail safety for train crews and members of the public who encounter train passings at grade crossings.
In written testimony, Jefferies said the nearly 2,200 grade crossing collisions that occurred in 2023 were associated with more than 240 fatalities and 770 injuries.
“The safest grade crossing is the crossing that is not there. That’s why the elimination of grade crossings yields the biggest safety benefit,” said Jefferies.
Created under the IIJA, the Rail Crossing Elimination Grant Program provides more than $500 million per year through 2026 to local and state governments and other public entities for grade separation or closure, track relocation and the improvement or installation of grade crossing warning devices, Jefferies said.
Earlier this month, the FRA announced more than $1.1 billion in program grants would be awarded to fund 123 projects associated with more than 1,000 grade crossings, he noted.
“We are of one mind that the safest crossing the one that is not there,” Nehls told Jefferies. “I believe labor supports [the grant program] as well. As we work on the surface reauthorization and, most specifically the rail title, I will most assuredly be advocating for that program.”