Norfolk Southern has made progress on improving safety in the wake of its fiery Ohio derailment in February, but the railroad is complacent about meeting minimum safety requirements, according to federal regulators. (City of East Palestine, Ohio/Facebook)
Norfolk Southern has made progress on improving safety in the wake of its fiery Ohio derailment in February, but the railroad is complacent about meeting minimum safety requirements, according to federal regulators.
The Federal Railroad Administration this week released a scathing 143-page assessment of Norfolk Southern's safety culture, which noted renewed commitments by the company's leadership team to improve safety while highlighting poor communications, mistrust between employees and managers, and inadequate training that hinders efforts to improve safety.
"FRA's findings highlight the need for significant improvements in training practices, overall communications, and trust — all of which are vital to prevent accidents before they occur," FRA Administrator Amit Bose said in a statement.
The report increases scrutiny of the railroad, which has been in the spotlight since a Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, led to evacuations and drew the attention of regulators and lawmakers.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the derailment, has identified an overheating wheel bearing on one of the train's 149 cars as the cause of the incident. Dozens of cars came off the tracks — including 11 that were carrying hazardous chemicals. Nearby residents were evacuated and still have questions about the effects on their health.
The NTSB also is conducting an investigation into Norfolk Southern's safety culture, pointing to five serious incidents involving the railroad, including the one in East Palestine. The Transportation Department has called on the railroad industry to take steps to improve safety, issuing formal advisories since the derailment.
One of the findings in the new FRA report points to what it calls Norfolk Southern's inadequate response to alerts triggered by trackside sensors that detect train problems, such as an overheated wheel bearing. The devices, also known as hotboxes, transmit a signal to the railroad's Advanced Train Control desk. The response to those alerts is primarily via email, the FRA found, which slows communication.
"FRA found the railroad's process for handling, analyzing, and reacting to the data in the wayside detector reports . . . demonstrated a significant lack of standardization and consistency, directly contributing to data not being received by the personnel responsible for addressing the issues identified," the report said.
The FRA is recommending the railroad evaluate its communications processes around the safety alerts to eliminate delays. Among other recommendations: Launch a system in which employees can anonymously report safety close-calls without fear of discipline and create more opportunities for employee training while evaluating the effectiveness of existing training.
Norfolk Southern said the report would help the railroad achieve its goal of setting the "gold standard for safety in the rail industry."
Railroad chief executive Alan Shaw met with officials from the FRA on Tuesday to review the report. He said he promised Bose that the findings in the assessment would spur action by the company.
"We are a safe railroad driven to become even safer," Shaw said in a statement. "To learn, we have to listen. It's important to understand where the FRA believes we can do better, and we appreciate that they identified positive areas where we are already making progress."
The company said it turned over the report to Atkins Nuclear Secured, a consultant working on an independent review of Norfolk Southern's safety program.
The Atlanta-based railroad this month agreed to improve conditions for workers cleaning up the site of the Ohio derailment after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued $49,111 in penalties for worksite violations, including failing to provide or enforce the use of protective gear at the contaminated site. The railroad has agreed to pay the fines this month.
The assessment by the FRA, an agency of the Department of Transportation, took a broad look at the railroad's safety culture and training. The FRA conducted the safety assessment between March 15 and May 15 after a series of derailments that followed the Ohio incident and an incident in which a Norfolk Southern conductor was killed at a steel works in Cleveland.
"Our agency has taken several actions and continues to invest in projects to make freight rail safer, and we expect Norfolk Southern to do their part, acting on the recommendations in this assessment as well as previous ones to increase safety," Bose said.
