• Derailment= East Palestine Ohio

  • Discussion relating to the NS operations. Official web site can be found here: NSCORP.COM.
Discussion relating to the NS operations. Official web site can be found here: NSCORP.COM.
  by GRSdave
 
Opinion
In aftermath of East Palestine train derailment, two things clearly need to be addressed: Editorial
Updated: Feb. 17, 2023, 3:18 p.m.|Published: Feb. 17, 2023, 6:00 a.m.

By Editorial board, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer
Two weeks after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing toxic chemicals to spill and burst into flames, anxieties remain high in the community.

Residents from the town of about 5,000 packed an informational meeting at a gymnasium Wednesday, demanding answers about cleanup of the Feb. 3 wreck and raising concerns about long-term health impacts from the initial fire and a subsequent burn-off of the chemical vinyl chloride.

In the aftermath, it’s clear that government officials – federal, state and local – need to address two things that would bolster transparency and ease fears for this disaster and others in the future.

The first is that railroad companies such as Norfolk Southern should be required to immediately provide emergency response personnel, health officials and the public with a statement disclosing everything on a train when there is a derailment so that it is clear what the hazards may be.

Fire officials have that kind of information before they rush into burning buildings so that they know how to respond safely and properly. Such statements, for example, provide an alert when a building contains chemicals that could have a volatile reaction to water.

Yet media reports this week revealed that tankers that caught fire also contained three other cancer-causing chemicals. That information should have been disclosed to all the community immediately after the derailment.

Testing has shown that East Palestine’s water is safe to drink and that there are no residual air quality issues, but Wednesday’s public meeting showed that residents are scared about long-term effects from potential exposure to chemicals.

Health and environmental officials must continue to monitor the community, reporting their findings regularly to the public, to inform residents of potential trouble and reassurance if none occurs.

In an interview this week, a hazard materials specialist noted that when asked how many people died from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centers, emergency personnel often answer that more than 20 years later the total remains unknown because people are still dying from long-term health consequences.

A woman attending Wednesday’s public meeting expressed that kind of concern, wondering what the health of her three “grandbabies” would be like in five years. Will they all have cancer, she asked.

Norfolk Southern should be responsible for long-term monitoring of water wells. Continuing to test the air, water and soil that was exposed to chemicals during the disaster, as well as the health and wellbeing of residents -- and making that data public – will allow the community to properly prepare and take action to address any long-term effects.

About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.

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  by QB 52.32
 
taracer wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 1:52 pm Class One brake test was increased from being required after 4 hours off air to 24 hours, per FRA under railroad pressure. That means fewer visual inspections, but it was deemed to be acceptable since the automation would find any defects.

The unions tried to tell everyone, but no one listened.
taracer wrote:We are seeing the end result of the looting of US railroads begun in 2017 under PSR. It's similar to the looting of Sears or Toy's R Us, but with more devastating outcomes.
taracer wrote:I wasn't trying to imply that my post is what happened in this case, so there is nothing to debunk. I was pointing out a major change in the rules enacted due to PSR that has reduced the number of visual inspections performed on trains. .
I'll let your words tell the story when it comes to what you may or may not have been implying.

So, in terms of this specific catastrophe and subject of this thread where you made your posts, amongst all the speculation, misinformation and agendas what did the unions tell us that no one listened to before the NTSB has finished its work? And, if you look at the facts surrounding the major changes to the rules enacted that has reduced the number of visual inspections performed on trains, are they due to PSR?
taracer wrote:
QB 52.32 wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 10:03 pm Your 20-year employer is in its best physical condition yet, finally earning its cost of capital, a very important detail for a capital-intense business like railroads that goes to safety as well as other benefits.
As far as the numbers go you are using the figures they report, using their own metrics which were changed after PSR in 2017. Things such as yard dwell time and departures.

The same numbers they were using in late summer and fall of last year, while trains were just sitting out on the mainline for days.

You'll forgive me if I take those numbers with a grain of salt.
A carrier earning its cost of capital and physical condition has to do with track, infrastructure, facilities, and equipment, not operating metrics. Two entirely different things.
  by scoostraw
 
lvrr325 wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:28 pm I have seen a few claims the train did get an alarm at the Salem detector but was directed to continue.
I heard that also. I find it hard to believe. But who knows.

With all the railfans out there listening to dispatcher radio transmissions, NO ONE heard what happened with this train??
  by GRSdave
 
Fair use:

From the Washington Post

Before Ohio derailment, Norfolk Southern lobbied against safety rules

The Trump administration abandoned rail safety rules that were pursued during the Obama era. The Biden administration is trying to revive some of them.

By Ian Duncan, Luz Lazo and Michael Laris
February 18, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Three months before one of his railroad’s trains derailed and burned in Ohio, Norfolk Southern chief executive Alan Shaw shared a picture of him and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg smiling together after a meeting in Washington.

Shaw thanked Buttigieg, saying they had discussed shared goals for economic growth and infrastructure investments. Shaw presented his railroad as a climate-friendly alternative to sending freight by truck.

“Every time we shift freight from highway to rail, we reduce carbon emissions, ease congestion, and reduce wear on the nation’s publicly funded highway infrastructure,” Shaw wrote in a LinkedIn post.

But the meeting also had another purpose, according to a memo drafted later by a Transportation Department lawyer: It was an opportunity for Norfolk Southern to raise concerns about a proposed federal rule that would require trains, in most cases, to have two crew members. Federal regulators have argued that two workers could better respond to derailments and other emergencies, but the industry has pushed back against the proposal.

The meeting illustrates the two faces of Norfolk Southern and the railroad industry at large. It presents itself as a backbone of the nation’s economy — a safe and relatively green way to transport freight. At the same time, labor leaders and federal officials say, it aggressively resists proposed regulation by Washington, opposing new safety standards while searching for loopholes through existing rules.

Norfolk Southern, the nation’s fourth-largest railroad with a record $12.7 billion in revenue last year, is now on the defensive, tied to images of black plumes of burning vinyl chloride over East Palestine, where a 149-car train derailed Feb 3. As the National Transportation Safety Board investigates the cause of the derailment, the railroad has become the target of anger from residents in the small Ohio town and scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in Washington.

Norfolk Southern, the company involved in the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, was absent from the Feb. 15 town hall meeting on the toxic derailment.

While the NTSB is likely a year away from issuing safety recommendations, the federal government itself is facing questions over its response to the derailment and oversight of the railroad industry. Biden administration officials say they have been trying to tighten regulations after years of relatively lax federal oversight in the Trump era and will examine what changes might be needed after the derailment.

On Friday, leaders of the Senate committees for Commerce and the Environment and Public Works asked for a briefing from federal agencies in the next week on the investigation and the role of regulators. Commerce Committee chairwoman Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) wrote to Shaw and other railroad bosses on the same day seeking details on their safety practices.

Derailments aren’t uncommon, but hazmat spills are rare. Here’s what we know.

Norfolk Southern referred questions about federal safety rules to the Association of American Railroads, an industry group. In a statement, the organization said it was too soon to discuss what rule changes might be warranted.

“Immediate pushes for legislative or regulatory action absent of NTSB results and in response to the accident is premature at best — and opportunistic at worst,” the association said.

Sarah Feinberg, who headed the Federal Railroad Administration under President Barack Obama, said the derailment points to a systemic breakdown in the federal safety regulatory process. She said federal safety officials have faced challenges for decades in getting new rules through a vetting process, where critical safety measures can be subject to long delays and are routinely watered down by industry influence or bureaucratic struggles over costs and benefits.

Drone video taken on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, shows a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic materials on fire after derailing that night. (Video: Eric Whiting via Storyful)
That process is “broken and makes it incredibly challenging for safety regulators to finalize even common-sense safety regulations,” Feinberg said. “No matter which president you’re operating under, it has always been a challenge.”

Railroads spend heavily while lobbying in Washington, according to records analyzed by the transparency organization Open Secrets. Norfolk Southern is among the biggest spenders, paying $1.8 million last year for the services of 36 lobbyists.

At Shaw’s November meeting in Washington, federal officials “did not specifically respond” to concerns Norfolk Southern raised about the minimum crew rules, according to the Transportation Department attorney’s memo. Company leaders met with agency lawyers again in December to discuss the issue further, according to another federal memo.

Before the derailment, the railroad’s leadership had wanted to focus this year on its recent financial success and safety record, touting a 22 percent decline in injuries last year, according to data the railroad shared during a recent earnings call.

“Every conversation will begin with safety in 2023 and beyond,” Norfolk Southern executive vice president and chief operating officer Paul Duncan told analysts. “Operating safely is the right thing for our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities that we serve. This is an area where we have made great strides, but even one serious incident is too many.”

Duncan didn’t discuss a chart in his presentation showing an upward trend in train accidents, which railroad officials say can vary from minor incidents in rail yards or trespassing incidents, to collisions and derailments. The rate per million miles for such incidents was 3.89 last year, up from 3.87 in 2021, 3.59 in 2020 and 3.11 in 2019.

Railroad officials point to safety improvements on the main rail line, where the rate of incidents is far lower. Last year’s rate, however, was still higher than a decade ago, when the railroad covered millions more miles each year, FRA data shows.

At least 20 Norfolk Southern trains that have derailed since 2015 had chemical releases, according to FRA records.

In 2016, a derailment in Chautauqua County, N.Y., prompted evacuation orders and a massive effort to contain thousands of gallons of ethanol. In October 2020, a coal train derailed at a river trestle in Roanoke, leaving coal and debris in the stream. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality ordered Norfolk Southern to pay a $27,300 fine for environmental damage.

In May 2022, a Norfolk Southern train carrying petroleum distillates went off the rail in Harmar Township, Pa., dumping the liquid into a creek. A train hauling hazardous materials derailed Thursday near Detroit, but none spilled, officials said.

Labor leaders have warned that adoption of a service model known as “precision scheduled railroading” — which relies on reducing costs by using fewer staff and longer trains — could put safety at risk.

Christopher Hand, director of research at the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen — which represents about 10,000 workers, including more than 800 at Norfolk Southern — said safety concerns have long been raised by railroad workers. He pointed to risks from job cuts in key positions, including track maintenance crews, in recent years.

Hand said that three years ago, Norfolk Southern cut five positions in the East Palestine area that oversaw maintenance of equipment detectors that issue alerts if something is wrong in the track, including hot boxes that measure wheel bearing temperatures. The NTSB identified an overheated wheel bearing as a potential factor in the derailment.

“These incidents and instances have been happening more frequently,” Hand said. “Union workers have been saying this for the last three years, that something like this will happen soon as we continue to go down this model where we don’t have enough employees.”

‘We will get to the bottom of this,’ EPA tells residents near Ohio derailment site

As railroads have sought to reduce costs, labor leaders say federal safety rules also have been a target. Greg Hynes, national legislative director for SMART Transportation Division, a union, said the focus for railroads has been cutting back regulations “all in the name of profit.”

“All these regulations, these railroad regulations, they were written in blood,” Hynes said. “All of these came about because of bad behavior by railroads.”

Under the Obama administration, transportation officials sought to advance safety rules after the 2013 explosion of an oil train in Canada killed 47 people. But railroads found that regulators in the Trump administration were receptive to their arguments of rolling back rules.

When the administration announced that paring back rules would be a focus, Norfolk Southern wrote to the Transportation Department in 2017 with a list of priorities.

“NS appreciates the opportunity to participate in this wide-sweeping, and necessary, review of the regulatory burdens imposed on our industry and our company,” the company wrote in a 23-page submission that included rules and federal guidance it would like to see removed.

Among them: blocking efforts begun in the Obama administration that would have set rules on minimum crew sizes and rolling back a requirement on new electronic braking technology on trains carrying large volumes of hazardous flammable liquids.

Both measures ultimately were scrapped in the Trump era. While the proposed crew rule has been revived, federal officials said Friday they are facing challenges in pursuing a rule on new brakes after it failed a cost-benefit analysis, which showed that under a range of scenarios, the costs would be hundreds of millions of dollars more than the benefits the changes would bring over 20 years.

The new technology would ensure that all rail cars brake at the same time, rather than running into each other and creating the telltale “accordion effect” seen in aerial images of major derailments.

Had the Obama-era rule remained in place, it still would not have applied to the train that derailed in Ohio because it contained too few cars carrying especially dangerous flammable liquids.

“Losing four years of progress on developing a safety regulation is devastating,” Feinberg said. “The braking system that was in place on that Norfolk Southern train is a Civil War-era braking system.”

In 2007, Norfolk Southern boasted about running the nation’s first train fitted exclusively with the new braking technology, saying it could reduce stopping distances by 60 percent.

Norfolk Southern did not respond to questions Friday about its interest in the technology. The Association of American Railroads said in a statement that the newer-style brakes have proved unreliable and that long repair times made them impractical. The group said railroads have instead used locomotives placed throughout their trains to have better control over braking.

What’s known about the toxic plume from the Ohio train derailment

In the meantime, Biden administration officials say they are taking steps to tighten oversight and could pursue penalties against Norfolk Southern if investigators find it broke rail safety rules. FRA administrator Amit Bose is scheduled to visit the derailment site in the coming week to inspect rail cars.

Officials say they hope the derailment will spur Congress to beef up rail safety rules. Questions about rail safety have often broken along party lines, with Republicans more skeptical of increased regulation. But in a letter to Buttigieg this week, Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) questioned whether even the three crew members on the derailed train were enough, given its length.

In the aftermath of the derailment, Norfolk Southern is facing added expenses after a previously rosy financial outlook. The company’s stock is down about 10 percent compared with the day before the derailment. The Environmental Protection Agency warned in a “General Notice of Potential Liability” letter to Norfolk Southern on Feb. 10 that the carrier may be responsible for cleanup costs.

The company this week sought to reassure residents about remediation efforts and expanded the geographic area for which it would offer assistance to residents. Norfolk Southern said it was distributing more than $1.5 million to more than 1,000 families to cover costs tied to the evacuation and setting up a $1 million community fund. The company was required to complete more than 400 in-home air tests and provide drinking water.

A J.P. Morgan analysis found the derailment “continues to weigh on the (railroad’s) share price after an increasing amount of critical commentary from unions, elected officials, regulators, and the White House.”

The financial firm estimated the railroad is likely to underperform competitors until initial cleanup and remediation is complete. Its analysis projected costs to the company of between $30 million and $50 million, based on similar incidents, including the Hamar spill last year.

Whatever steps the government might take to hold Norfolk Southern accountable, the analysis concluded that, at least in the short term, the stock market already had rendered a judgment worth billions of dollars.

#
Link to story:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... in-safety/
  by CLamb
 
GRSdave wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:00 am By Editorial board, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer ...
The first is that railroad companies such as Norfolk Southern should be required to immediately provide emergency response personnel, health officials and the public with a statement disclosing everything on a train when there is a derailment so that it is clear what the hazards may be.
Doesn't the crew have a copy of the manifest listing everything carried on the train?
  by urr304
 
That is a good question. We will have to await an answer from a current train/engine service employee for a definite answer.

Very likely, they do not have a paper copy to easily show any responder, probably only digital with a tablet. Remember we have to stop cutting trees, all industries are pushed to limit use of paper.

Then there is a rush to another panacea, electronic braking. I am in manufacturing and there are always problems with initiating new control systems. With the rail industry with equipment spread across a continent, it would be thousands of times more difficult. With complexity of control systems, even though actual operators numbers can be reduced, the need for skilled maintainers and repairers increases. It isn't one for one, perhaps 10 or 15 to one, but the need for technical skills is increasing.

Don't worry, in general industry the ranks of maintainers are reduced or remain same for even more equipment.
  by GRSdave
 
Buttigieg warns Norfolk Southern to support Ohio community

ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOSH BOAK
Sun, February 19, 2023 at 5:36 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter Sunday to the CEO of Norfolk Southern, warning that the freight rail company must “demonstrate unequivocal support for the people” of East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding areas after a fiery train derailment led to the release of chemicals and residents expressing concerns about their health.

“Norfolk Southern must live up to its commitment to make residents whole — and must also live up to its obligation to do whatever it takes to stop putting communities such as East Palestine at risk,” Buttigieg wrote. “This is the right time for Norfolk Southern to take a leadership position within the rail industry, shifting to a posture that focuses on supporting, not thwarting, efforts to raise the standard of U.S. rail safety regulation.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday that the chemicals that spilled into the Ohio River are no longer a risk, even as people in the community say they have constant headaches and irritated eyes. The state plans to open a medical clinic in the village of 4,700 to analyze their symptoms, despite repeated statements that air and water testing has shown no signs of contaminants.

Still, uncertainty persists about the consequences of a derailment that occurred roughly two weeks ago.

Peter DeCarlo, a professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News on Sunday that more testing is needed to determine which chemicals are present.

“We just don’t have the information we need to understand what chemicals may be present,” DeCarlo said. “We know it started as vinyl chloride, but as soon as you burn that all bets are off. You have a lot of chemical byproducts that can happen from a combustion process like that."

Asked if he would move back to East Palestine if he were already living there, DeCarlo said: “I have two little boys. I would not.”

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw issued a statement on Saturday that he “returned to East Palestine today to meet with local leaders, first responders, and a group of Norfolk Southern employees who live in the area.”

"In every conversation today, I shared how deeply sorry I am this happened to their home,” Shaw said. The Atlanta-based company has created a website with updates, NSMakingItRight.com.

The transportation secretary's letter on Sunday came across as a stern warning to Norfolk Southern, saying: “It is imperative that your company be unambiguous and forthright in its commitment to take care of the residents — now and in the future.”

Buttigieg said the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the derailment and that the Federal Railroad Administration is also analyzing whether safety violations occurred and will hold Norfolk Southern accountable if violations did occur.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said the company must document the release of hazardous contaminants and outline cleanup actions.

But Buttigieg also said that Norfolk Southern and other rail companies “spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose common-sense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others.” He said the effort undermined rules on brake requirements and delayed the phase-in for more durable rail cars to transport hazardous material to 2029, instead of the “originally envisioned date of 2025.”

The transportation secretary said the results of the investigation are not yet know, but “we do know that these steps that Norfolk Southern and its peers lobbied against were intended to improve rail safety and to help keep Americans safe.”

#
  by Gilbert B Norman
 
From Hilton Suites Boca Raton--

The Times reported this past Friday with this article headlined "Chernobyl 2.0":

Fair Use:
On social media like Twitter and Telegram, commentators have called the situation the “largest environmental disaster in history” or simply “Chernobyl 2.0,” invoking the 1986 nuclear disaster. They warned, without evidence, that vital water reservoirs serving states downriver could be badly contaminated. And they suggested that the authorities, railroad companies and mainstream news media were purposefully obscuring the full toll of the crisis.
No doubt, the rise of social media is the source of such nonsense regarding an incident from which zero (0) injuries or fatalities has resulted, and both Federal and State environmental protection have reported both air and water resources are safe.

Just as well that when incidents like Weyauwega and Megantic occurred, social media was hardly as active as today. All told, the worst "media disaster" confronting not only Topper, but also the entire industry in a long, long time.
  by Bracdude181
 
Chernobyl 2.0? Really? This isn’t THAT bad. Although it does seem this accident has a larger impact on the environment than Megantic did.
  by eolesen
 
Other than claims of dead livestock and itchy eyes, the environmental damage does seem minimal in comparison to pipeline incidents involving ethanol and MBTE spills.

I like how the Times tried to bring Trump into this, but admits at the very end later that the Obama changes which were rolled back (crew size and electronic braking) wouldn't have mattered. It's a great distraction from Mayor Pete's absence until a week after the accident and some calls for his resignation late last week.
  by Bracdude181
 
Not sure if it was that article specifically, but one I read yesterday tried to blame trump for getting rid of a law the Obama administration passed. Something to do with classifications of trains carrying a certain amount of chemicals? It admitted towards the end that this specific law wouldn’t have applied anyways as there wasn’t enough hazardous materials being shipped on this train to meet that laws criteria.
  by Gilbert B Norman
 
From Hilton Suites Boca Raton--

The opinion piece appearing first at The Times' site, appears in the Monday print edition.

It is given an entire page; and in addition to the text appearing at their site, is embellished with graphs and maps.
  by R Paul Carey
 
I believe lvrr325 has "nailed" it.

If there was no unusual reading at the Salem detector (nominally 20 miles west of East Palestine), I believe NS would have said so by now.

R. Paul Carey.
  by scoostraw
 
R Paul Carey wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:28 am I believe lvrr325 has "nailed" it.

If there was no unusual reading at the Salem detector (nominally 20 miles west of East Palestine), I believe NS would have said so by now.

R. Paul Carey.
I don't know. It would seem to me that NS's position might be "the less said the better". I'm not sure we can conclude anything with regard to the Salem detector.

But who knows.
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