AAR to Buttigieg: Rail safety record has been 'misrepresented'

In a letter sent yesterday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies addressed what the association characterizes as misrepresentations of the freight-rail industry's safety record.

Jefferies' letter follows a media call and press conference that Buttigieg participated in last week with the nation's rail labor unions to mark the one-year anniversary of the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment of a Norfolk Southern Railway hazmat train in East Palestine, Ohio. The union representatives on the call warned of what they said are ongoing safety threats on the U.S. freight-rail system.

Buttigieg said Congress should pass the Railway Safety Act, which has been languishing on Capitol Hill since the bill was introduced in the weeks after the accident in East Palestine.

In his letter, Jefferies noted that "freight rail is absolutely the safest mode of freight transport (in addition to having the lowest environmental impact) and is consistently getting safer."

"We are driving every day to find ways to continue to reduce injuries and accidents. We will not relent on this core mission," he wrote.

Jefferies finds it "disheartening" that the East Palestine derailment's anniversary wasn't used as an opportunity to "correct partial truths and misinformation as well as to educate the country about how important and safe freight rail is," and the industry's work to make rail transportation even safer.

Jefferies summarized how much rail safety has improved over the past many years, as well as the steps the industry has taken to improve safety since the East Palestine derailment. To read the letter, click here.