OMAHA, Neb. — The fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals — sending a huge plume of smoke in the air and forcing residents of a small Ohio town to evacuate — has highlighted the potentially disastrous consequences of train accidents and raised questions about railroad safety.
The railroad industry is generally regarded as the safest option for most goods and federal data show accidents involving hazardous materials are exceedingly rare. But with rails crossing through the heart of nearly every city and town nationwide, even one hazardous materials accident could be disastrous, especially in a populated area.
This photo taken with a drone on Feb. 4 shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed a night earlier in East Palestine, Ohio.
Rail unions believe the industry has gotten riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers spread thin.
“It raises all kinds of questions,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told “Fox & Friends” this week when he was asked whether hazardous materials are too dangerous to transport by rail.
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“We’ve seen it up close and personal the last few days,” DeWine said. “This is a big, big deal.”
About half of the 4,800 residents in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine and those in the surrounding area, including parts of Pennsylvania, had to evacuate as officials monitored air and water quality following a controlled burn of chemicals released from damaged tank cars. The evacuation order was lifted Wednesday after the air was deemed safe.
A black plume rises on Feb. 6 over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern train.
“I’m scared to go back home,” resident Brittany Dailey said Monday. “I’m eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point.”
Ian Jefferies, head of the Association of American Railroads trade group, said 99.9% of all hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely.
Federal Railroad Administration data showed hazardous chemicals were released during 11 train accidents nationwide last year, out of roughly 535 million miles, with only two injuries reported. In the past decade, releases of hazardous materials peaked at 20 in both 2018 and 2020.
“Railroads are the safest form of moving goods across land in the country without question,” Jefferies said. “But railroads are also working to drive toward zero incidents.”
Railroads try to route hazardous materials shipments on the safest path. Most of the worst derailments in recent years happened in rural areas, but in 2013 a derailment in Canada killed 47 people in the town of Lac Megantic and caused millions of dollars in damage. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, killed nine people and injured more than 250 after toxic chlorine gases were released.
Hazardous materials account for about 7-8% of the 30 million shipments that railroads deliver across the country every year. But because of the way railroads mix freight together, at least a couple cars of hazardous materials can be found on nearly any train besides grain or coal trains.
“Railroads are a very safe form of transportation from a standpoint of statistics,” said professor David Clarke, who previously led the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. “That doesn’t mean that you’re never going to have an accident. That would be unrealistic for any type of transportation to have zero accidents.”
Some say that’s not enough. An East Palestine business owner and two other residents sued the rail operator in federal court on Tuesday, alleging negligence. Among other things, the lawsuit says the railroad failed to maintain and inspect its tracks and rail cars, failed to provide appropriate employee training, and failed to reasonably warn the public.
Ohio National Guard 52nd Civil Support Team members prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system on Feb. 7 in East Palestine, Ohio.
Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department coalition, said he worries the chances of a catastrophic derailment are increasing because major freight railroads have eliminated roughly one-third of their workers over the past six years. Companies have shifted to running fewer, longer trains and say they don’t need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives.
Before those operating changes, Regan said inspectors used to have about two minutes to inspect every railcar. Now they only get roughly 30 to 45 seconds to check each car. Signalmen who maintain crossing guards and safety signals along the tracks also have bigger territories, making it harder to keep up with preventative maintenance.
“They’re really just trying to squeeze as much productivity out of these workers as they can,” Regan said. “And when you’re focused on timing and rushing, unfortunately sometimes things can fall through the cracks.”
Professor Allan Zarembski, who leads the University of Delaware’s Rail Engineering and Safety Program, said railroads are continually working to improve safety and prevent derailments.
Railroads are developing new acoustic detectors being placed along tracks to signal if a bearing is about to fail. Heat sensors also have been in place for years to spot overheating bearings, which is one of the most common causes of an axle failure, Zarembski said.
Railroads and the shipping companies that own tank cars also have been steadily improving them to reduce the chances they will rupture in a derailment.
Railroads also invest about $24 billion per year in maintaining and improving tracks to help prevent problems.
Why the US falls behind in passenger train travel
Why the US falls behind in passenger train travel
On Sep. 14, Amtrak canceled all of its long-distance routes in the U.S. There was a looming national railway strike, and although no Amtrak employees were part of the involved unions, the dominant ownership of U.S. rail lines by seven companies left Amtrak and its passengers in the middle of the negotiations.
Amtrak restored service on Sept. 16 after it struck a tentative deal with freight rail workers to avert a strike, but the threat remains. On Oct. 11, members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division rejected a proposed five-year contract, opening up a new chance of a national strike occurring around Nov. 19.
Such modern strife fails to convey the vision of rail travel as a comfortable, scenic, and dependable mode of crossnational transportation. Rail in the U.S. first grew alongside the westward expansion. The government granted companies rights-of-way and adjacent land for building railways, which contributed to population shifts, expanded domestic trade, and increased wealth for railroad owners.
The subsequent expansion of the aviation and automotive industries put increased strain on railroad companies during the 20th century. While the U.S. was investing in highways, rail continued to be a largely private venture. Companies consolidated, creating monopolies and duopolies managing different regions.
At this same time, European countries, along with Japan and China, were constructing publicly funded national and crossnational rail systems, some with high-speed technology, such as the Tokaido Shinkansen—the world's first "bullet train."
The U.S. government wouldn't have active ownership in the rail industry until the 1970s when the Rail Passenger Service Act created Amtrak from existing intercity services, and the bankruptcy of freight company Penn Central's led to the creation of Conrail. Both enterprises, confronted with decades of underinvestment in rail transportation and aging infrastructure, were charged with acting as businesses instead of services.
Fast-forward to 50 years later, the government no longer manages Conrail, and Amtrak's network has shrunk. Its long-distance routes are now dependent on privately owned lines, leaving the U.S. far behind countries that actively expanded public rail systems in the last century.
In recent years, environmental motivations, wavering gas prices, and a desire for a dependable alternative to air travel—which has lost a significant amount of public trust due to widespread delays and cancellations along with issues such as lost or damaged baggage and consumer complaints—have bolstered a new-found enthusiasm for an expanded national rail system. This vision got a major boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which earmarked $102 billion for rail investment in both Amtrak and intercity passenger rail.
Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of the Rail Passenger Association, told Stacker that the vision of a dense passenger network like those in Europe and Asia is far away for most U.S. regions. Still, the concept of a balanced transportation network is gaining momentum, where efficient rail options are competitive with flying and driving.
Stacker cited data from the Federal Railroad Administration, Bureau of Transportation of Statistics, and the Organization for Economic Development to explore passenger rail service in the U.S. and the factors that have made it fall behind other developed countries.
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The US has one of the most extensive rail systems in the world, but its primarily used for freight
High-density passenger rail service throughout Europe, Japan, and Korea has outlined a model for efficient transportation between cities without highways. The U.S.'s geographic size makes competitive passenger rail service connecting New York to Los Angeles unrealistic, but there are regional corridors that offer intercity service opportunities that could be comparable to train services operating in smaller countries.
The Northeast Corridor, which connects major hubs such as New York City and Washington D.C., is the best example in the U.S. Still, advocates also see potential in other areas, including Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati or Atlanta-Nashville: "We don't really think of them as big passenger rail regions; however, they've seen tremendous population growth in the last couple decades," Jeans-Gail said.
Even in the Northeast, where regular train options are competitive with driving and air travel, train service is slower than high-speed alternatives in similarly dense international areas.
For example, the 226-mile journey between New York and Washington D.C. takes about three hours on Amtrak's electrified Acela. A similar 243-mile journey between Lyon and Paris is an hour shorter. And Japan's Shinkansen covers the 283 miles between Tokyo and Kyoto in just over two hours.
The Acela trains can move up to 150 mph, but usually operate at slower speeds due to aging infrastructure and sharing lines with commuter and freight trains. New Avelia Liberty trains are set to debut in 2023 and will likely reach speeds of 160 mph on certain parts of the track, though they're capable of reaching 180 mph.
Freight-related delays have limited Amtrak's on-time performance
Legally, freight railroads must grant passenger trains preference on their lines when Amtrak pays a "fair price" to operate on the line, and there is no unreasonable impairment of operations.
But what constitutes an impairment of operations has proven difficult to define, giving dispatchers the authority to hold up passenger trains in deference to prioritizing freight trains, which can be over 1 mile in length and cause significant delays.
A Stacker analysis of all minutes lost to delay in Q1 2022 on long-distance routes running on host railroads that ran at least half an hour late found that 60% of all minutes delayed were caused not by Amtrak but by the host rail lines on which Amtrak was running its service.
Still, there may be opportunities in higher population corridors for passenger and freight rail to coexist more efficiently.
Jeans-Gail pointed to California, where Amtrak and regional commuter rail authorities operate multiple trains daily on freight railroads and where passenger train fees are a reliable source of revenue. With once or twice daily trains, "You don't really give them enough money to justify running their railroad any differently," Jeans-Gail said.
Private and state investment could also expand passenger infrastructure
The infrastructure bill directly awarded $22 billion over the next five years to Amtrak, the most significant single investment it's ever received. It could receive additional funds through grants distributed by the Federal Railroad Administration, which state agencies may also compete for.
The funding comes on the heels of Amtrak's Connect Us plan, a $75 billion "vision" to add new connections and enhance existing routes. Beyond the funding, the 15-year plan also emphasized the importance of laws clarifying language overseeing host railroad access.
Before the infrastructure bill passed, some state transportation agencies had already prioritized rail. Virginia bought tracks from freight operator CSX for $3.7 million, increasing commuter service and Amtrak connections to Washington D.C. Along with North Carolina, Virginia is also evaluating restoring out-of-service CSX tracks to support a Richmond-Raleigh connection as part of a Southeast high-speed rail corridor.
The infrastructure bill grants have also encouraged other states to consider how they could invest newly available funds into rail development, including an expansion of the Heartland Flyer through North Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
However, building rail in the U.S. is often more expensive than in other countries. One need perhaps only turn to the ongoing difficulties hindering California's burgeoning high-speed rail project for an example of significant cost overruns impacting rail growth. An Eno Center for Transportation analysis found that rail transit projects cost 50% more in the U.S. than in other countries, even when running along existing rights-of-way.
While some passenger rail enthusiasts prefer a publicly funded model expanding Amtrak and state capacity, the U.S. has also begun to see growing private investment. Brightline operates trains in Southeast Florida and is preparing to break ground on a new track connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Texas Central Railway, expected to open a route connecting Dallas and Houston in 90 minutes by 2026, is also privately owned.
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