Rail safety in the news again

Bad news for the rail industry: The spectacular Monday morning’s crash and explosion of a propane-laden CSX freight train in Oneida, New York, has — again — prompted calls for much tighter rules to govern track and rail car maintenance, and the number of hours rail crews work. Joseph Boardman, the former transportation commissioner in New York who now heads the Federal Railroad Administration, said Tuesday that he had met with CSX senior executives to discuss safety issues following an FRA inspection of CSX property, the Financial Times reported

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) called yesterday for creating a task force consisting of the FRA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the DHS to investigate recent CSX accidents in upstate New York and determine whether the railroad is doing enough to prevent future accidents. He also called for tougher regulations, including annual inspections of tank cars and steeper fines for violations.

Schumer’s Rail Crossing and Hazardous Materials Transport Act “would finally give the FRA the teeth to go after” railroads that violate safety standards, he said. Schumer, in a conference call with reporters, said 572 rail accidents since 2000 across upstate New York alone have caused nearly $34 million in damage. In the Capital Region, 148 accidents over the period resulted in $7.7 million in damage. “The worry I have is that, God forbid, we’ll have a really terrible accident before the FRA gets its act together,” he said.

The Oneida wreck was the fourth major train accident in four months in upstate New York, Schumer said. “Lately, we’ve had an accident every other week,” he added.

CSX invests $1.4 billion annually in infrastructure, including bridges, signals, and tracks; tracks are inspected visually twice a week. Sullivan said accidents on CSX lines decreased by 24 percent between 2005 and 2006, and are down another 28 percent so far this year.