A Senate panel weighing the confirmation of Sarah Feinberg, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Federal Railroad Administration, had one primary line of questioning in a recent meeting. They want to know whether America's railroad industry will be able to meet a year-end deadline to install positive train control, new safety technology designed to help keep trains from derailing, and if not, what the contingency plan will be. Over the nine months that Feinberg has served as the FRA's acting administrator, multiple trains have derailed - most notably an Amtrak passenger train that jumped the tracks in Philadelphia in May, killing eight people and injuring 200. Throughout questioning, Feinberg assured lawmkers that she would enforce the December 31 deadline for installation of the technology and noted that the agency would work with rail companies facing financial and technical challenges meeting the deadline. Citing a report and recommendation by the Government Accounta...

September 25, 2015

A Senate panel weighing the confirmation of Sarah Feinberg, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Federal Railroad Administration, had one primary line of questioning in a recent meeting. They want to know whether America's railroad industry will be able to meet a year-end deadline to install positive train control, new safety technology designed to help keep trains from derailing, and if not, what the contingency plan will be. Over the nine months that Feinberg has served as the FRA's acting administrator, multiple trains have derailed in part due to excessive speeds - most notably an Amtrak passenger train that jumped the tracks in Philadelphia in May, killing eight people and injuring 200. Throughout questinoing, Feinberg assured lawmkers that she would enforce the December 31 deadline for installation of the technology and noted that the agency would work with rail companies facing financial and technical challenges meeting the deadline. Citing a report and recommend...

September 25, 2015

Officials with the Federal Railroad Adminstration recently issued a directive to private railroad companies, calling for improved transparency about the safety of their railways, particularly those that cross bridges. The move was prompted by a television news station's investigation of a crumbling, corroded railroad bridge in Milwaukee. The city's FOX6 news team showed footage of the aging and ailing railroad bridge on 1st Street in Milwaukee's Fifth Ward. The bridge is owned by Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Pacific Railway, which owns nearly 14,000 miles of track that stretches across Canada and into multiple US markets including Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago and New York City.  But despite several requests, Canadian Pacific officials refused to release records that would show when and how often the bridge has been or will be instected for safety. The investigation caught the attention of Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, who turned to the FRA, asking officials to...

September 12, 2015

In July 2013, an unattended 74-car train loaded the highly volatile Bakken crude oil rolled downhill and derained in Lac-Mégantic, Canada, killing 47 people and injuring scores more. Investigators turned up nearly 20 contributing factors the primary cause was that the engineer simply failed to secure the train. The incident prompted multiple investagations and actions by the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration. The latest is a final rule by the FRA affecting trains carrying any poisonous by inhalation or toxic by inhalation hazardous materials, or 20 or more cars of other high-hazard flammable materials and left unattended on a mainline, siding or rail yard. Primary requirements include: A qualified and trained railroad employee to properly secure the equipment and verification of the securement with a second trained and qualified employee; Additional communication, including job briefings among crew members responsible for the t...

August 31, 2015

Officials with Amtrak recently announced that the company will install video surveillance cameras inside its locomotive cabs to record actions and behaviors of train engineers. Safety advocates have long lobbied the government and the railroad industry for cab cameras in an effort to better monitor and manage problems that pose accident risks. The move was prompted by the May 12 derailment of Amtrak's Northeast Regional train 188, which accelerated to a speed of 106-miles per hour just before entering a curve where it derailed in Pennsylvania. The speed limit for trains at the curve is 50 miles per hour, which means the train was traveling at twice the lawful speed. The crash killed eight people and injured upward of 200 more. The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into whether engineer Brandon Bostian may have been using his mobile in the moments before the crash. Bostian maintains that his mobile phone was secured in a bag at the time and that he...

August 27, 2015

Accidents involving pedestrians and trains are on the rise, according to preliminary data from the Federal Railroad Administration. FRA statistics show that 950 people trespassed on railroad property in 2015. Of them, 500 incidents resulted in death. "Nearly all of these deaths and injuries are preventable," said Libby Rector Snipe, spokesperson for Operation Lifesaver, Inc., a non-profit program formed in 1972 specializing in railroad safety education. Among the factors contributing to the rise are an increased amount of train traffic in many parts of the country; inconsistencies in the amount of time that it takes railroad crossing arms to fully deploy when a train is coming; technology that makes trains ever quieter; and ever-increasing distraction on the part of pedestrians, including wearing headphones and looking at smartphones while walking. If you regularly walk in an area that has a railroad track or crossing, understand that you hold much of the responsibili...

August 1, 2015

The say no good deed goes unpunished. Unfortunately, that’s often the case for those brave enough to speak up when a workplace issue threatens the safety of workers, customers and others. A prime example is former BNSF Railway employee Mike Elliott who, after a four-year court battle, secured a $1.25 million jury award. Elliot had served as a union and safety leader at BNSF, North America' second-largest freight railroad network. But when he reported a number of potential signal-related safety violations to the company officials and federal authorities, he never expected to be retaliated against. Elliot's report prompted a federal investigation, which confirmed multiple violations, including 245 track, switch and turnout defects and 112 signal system defects, some of which resulted in civil penalties. Though it all ultimately may have helped save lives, Elliot's employer was none too happy about the report and investigation. Shortly after the report was filed, Elliot was fire...

July 17, 2015

Here in Jacksonville, Florida where RailJustice is based, recent media headlines were abuzz with news of an accident at a railroad crossing in the Riverside area in which a Miami-bound Amtrak train carrying 171 passengers hit a car, slicing it in half. While surveillance video and police reports show that the driver of the Honda Accord was at fault for driving around the lowered crossing arms, video from a subsequent television news report reveals inconsistent timing of those crossing arms - a factor that can make for a potentially deadly situation. In the days following the accident, video in Jacksonville's Action News reporter Katie McKee's live report on the TV station's 5pm newscast showed a train barreling down the CSX-owned tracks, reaching the crossing just two seconds after the crossing arms were fully deployed. Then, during an evening report from the same scene by reporter Catherine Varnum, the arms were lowered for more than 10 seconds before another train passed by....

June 30, 2015

Last month's deadly Amtrak crash that killed eight passengers and injured more than 200 when it derailed near Pennsylvania has prompted new legislation aimed at giving the rail service ample funding for needed safety improvements, particularly to its heavily traveled Northeast Corridor tracks. Sponsored by Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Railroad Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act calls for spending approximately $1.65 billion annually over the next four years on the rail service, as well as $570 million per year on rail grants. Totaling upward of $9 billion, funds would help cover improvements to all Amtrak services and tracks and reorganization of the company's board of directors to ensure representation from multiple regions where Amtrak operates. In a heavily criticized move, lawmakers in the House of Representatives last month called for a $3 million cut to Amtrak's funding the day after the headline-making derailment. The lower chamber ha...

June 19, 2015

The cause of last week's devastating Amtrak derailment that killed eight people, including a US Naval Academy midshipman, and injured dozens more remains under investigation and may take up to a year to ascertain. But one factor that may have contributed to the accident has to do with a shift change and a fatigued engineer. Engineer Brandon Bostian's May 12 shift had been "grueling" to begin with, say representatives of Railroad Workers United, an advocacy group of freight and passenger rail workers. So, when equipment-related delays on his earlier train to Washington DC cut into his much needed rest break, the potential for danger escalated. That train arrived 26 minutes late, leaving just an hour for Bostian to rest and eat before his next scheduled train back to New York. It was that train that derailed in Philadelphia when it approached a curve at 106 mph - more than twice the speed it should have been traveling at that point. For decades, engineers were given 90-mi...

May 23, 2015