Jacksonville-based railroad giant CSX experienced yet another train derailment last week—fueling dangerous propane fires that evacuated homes within a half mile radius of the 23-car freight train pile-up in Princeton, Indiana.
This latest event comes on the heels of a string of CSX accidents, as 2017 incidents have continued to spill over into 2018—an August 2017 derailment in Pennsylvania sent dozens of cars off the tracks and spawned numerous small fires, while another Keystone state derailment in September sent more than 20 cars loaded with coal onto an adjacent roadway. In October, a train went off the rails and through a house in northwest Atlanta, and a train carrying hazardous molten sulfur derailed in Florida this past November. In February 2018, a CSX freight train collided with a commercial semi-truck near Frederick, Maryland while a railway bridge maintained by CSX partially collapsed in Alexandria, Virginia in May, causing 30 of 167 cars to derail when the engineer tried to stop the train.
Not surprisingly, CSX now boasts the second highest rail accident rate in the country and is first among Class I railroad carriers. The Jacksonville Business Journal reports that, in 2017, CSX was involved in at least 205 accidents with an accident rate that has increased 59 percent since 2013. National numbers for Class I rail accidents have actually decreased six percent in the same time period.
The local Jacksonville newspaper has also printed stories in recent months that suggest the problems of CSX run quite deep, calling into question the company’s workforce reduction that has led to overworked employees and an all-time low morale. More aggressively than any other similar-sized rail transport company, CSX has laid off 4,000 employees in 2017—including about seven percent of its train and engine workforce.
Unfortunate news for the general public who live and work in proximity to CSX rail lines, as industry experts recognize a definite link between the number of knowledgeable employees and overall safety. “If you see a drop in employees, you’re going to see a drop in safety,” explains locomotive engineer Charles Culver, a railroads operations consultant at Charles Culver & Associates.
As an example of this correlation, USA Today reports CSX employees are under strain and have been pressured to skip such fundamental tasks as mandatory brake checks in order to move trains out of a yard quicker. That’s a serious issue when much of what trains carry is hazardous: Bulk commodities make up nearly 70 percent of the total freight train tonnage with natural gas and gasoline being two of its leading products, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The fact is train accidents hurt more than a company’s bottom line: Spewing chemicals, dangerous fires, and released contaminants can harm entire communities and put everyone’s lives at risk. Hopefully CSX learns this valuable lesson and returns to putting safety first.
