WASHINGTON — Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement to commemorate Rail Safety Week, which runs from September 21-27, 2026:
“As America’s largest transportation labor federation, representing the totality of the unionized rail workforce, we are committed to advocating for a safer rail network for workers, passengers, and the public. Rail Safety Week is an annual reminder of what railroad workers live and breathe every day: railroading is a tough job in a tough environment.
“Last year, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) collected 25% more in civil penalty fines from railroads for safety violations than the previous year. While we appreciate the FRA’s enforcement of these fines, the industry’s underlying safety culture is alarming. The reality is that rail workers continue to be put in unsafe situations and are injured, killed, or assaulted on the job. This year, at least three conductors have been injured and one was killed in separate workplace incidents.
“This year there have also been several rail worker injuries related to shoving incidents. Shoving involves using a locomotive to move railcars, with a conductor physically riding the moving railcars or walking alongside the train to watch for any danger. Too often, danger is present and they end up paying the ultimate price. Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a Safety Advisory after 14 reported conductor deaths were attributed to shoving incidents; one month later, the FRA also issued a Safety Advisory drawing attention to these dangers.
“The rail industry has flooded the FRA with more than 125 requests to waive safety standards and has sought other actions to remove or bypass longstanding regulations that were written in the blood of workers. For example, the industry is attempting to extend rail car brake inspection intervals from every 1,500 miles to every 2,500 miles, which would enable a rail car to travel from coast to coast without a single hands-on inspection. Industry is also urging the FRA to weaken inspection and testing of vital signal systems and highway-rail grade crossings warning devices that prevent collisions by warning drivers, bikers, and pedestrians of approaching trains.
“At the same time, the industry’s development and use of unchecked technology is jeopardizing safety. In June, BNSF Railway’s use of a computer-automated dispatching system nearly caused a hazmat freight train to collide with a track worker in Washington State. Fortunately, a human dispatcher caught the error and averted the catastrophe. This is only one in a list of examples where this technology failed, and labor is calling for passage of the bipartisan Safe Tracks Act and FRA action.
“Alongside the rail industry, Congress has a responsibility to ensure that technology is safely and properly deployed. For example, the bicameral, bipartisan Secure Tracks Act gets it right: it responsibly incorporates technology by maintaining track workers’ visual inspections while requiring the use of Automated Track Inspection (ATI) technology at regular intervals, and requiring that inspectors begin fixing track defects immediately.
“Several industry groups and individual railroads recently challenged a bedrock safety rule — the requirement for two-person crews on most freight trains — but a federal appeals court upheld the rule. While a victory, this incident illustrates why Congress must codify the two-person crew rule so that future court challenges can never arbitrarily reverse decades of advocacy that led to this necessary safety measure.
“Until the industry’s safety incident total hits zero and every railroader returns home safely from the job, there is more work to be done. We call on Congress to pass the Railway Safety Act and other important rail safety legislation. As we approach the 120th Congress, we urge elected representatives to exercise their legislative and oversight duties to keep our national rail network as safe as possible.”
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