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The Harriman streak is still alive for Norfolk Southern Railway. Yesterday, the Class I received the "gold" or top honor in the E.H. Harriman Memorial Safety Awards' Group A category for the 16th-straight year. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) presented the awards during a luncheon in Washington, D.C.

BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad won the silver and bronze, respectively, in Group A — line-haul railroads whose employees worked a combined 15 million hours or more last year — for the second-consecutive year.

In Group B, comprising line-haul railroads whose employees worked between 4 million and 15 million hours, Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. (Metra) took gold for the second-straight year. Canadian Pacific Railway's Soo Line Railroad and Canadian National Railway Co.’s Illinois Central Railroad won silver and bronze, respectively.

In Group C — line-haul railroads whose employees worked fewer than 4 million hours — Guilford Rail System took gold; the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co., silver; and Providence & Worcester Railroad Co., bronze.

Finally, in Group S&T (switching and terminal companies), Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis earned gold and Conrail won silver for the third-straight year. The Alton and Southern Railway took bronze.

AAR also presented special certificates of commendation for continuous safety performance improvement to BNSF, MTA Long Island Rail Road, Canadian Pacific Railway's Delaware & Hudson Railway and Conrail.

Winning roads helped the rail industry reduce the 2004 employee casualty rate about 9 percent compared with 2003 and set the industry’s lowest-ever casualty rate, said AAR President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Hamberger at the luncheon.

"And for the first two months of this year, the employee casualty rate is down an additional 20 percent from the same period last year," he said, according to a prepared statement.

Harrimans are based on the lowest casualty rates per 200,000 employee-hours worked — a formula that takes into account the volume of work performed, as well as the number of fatalities, injuries and occupational illnesses confirmed by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The late Mary W. Harriman founded the awards in 1913 to memorialize her husband, railroad pioneer Edward H. Harriman.