Admin

A Norfolk Southern worker is dead after being struck by a dump truck Tuesday morning at a railroad crossing at a Cleveland steel plant.

Norfolk Southern says conductor Louis Shuster was killed on the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works property in Cleveland.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office says Shuster, 46, was from Broadview Heights.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it is opening a “special investigation” into Norfolk Southern’s safety culture, pointing to five serious incidents involving the railroad — including last month’s derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

“The continued safe operations of Norfolk Southern is vital to the United States,” the board said in a statement. “The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture.”

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I am pleased to respond to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) notice regarding Union Pacific Railroad’s (UP) February 3, 2023, request to amend its Positive Train Control (PTC) safety plan and control system. TTD consists of 37 affiliated unions representing the totality of rail labor, including both passenger and freight rail workers[1]. For the reasons stated below, TTD is again asking FRA to deny UP’s request without prejudice because of a lack of information provided by UP in this filing. Additionally, we endorse the comments filed by our affiliated union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS).

Background

The current PTC safety plan amendment being considered by FRA is a re-filing of an amendment that was originally offered on December 12, 2022. UP withdrew that amendment following significant concerns and opposition from TTD and our affiliated unions. The original December 2022 filing consisted of two documents totaling more than 1,000 pages, including a 586-page document that contained more than 550 fully-redacted pages. In that document, UP stated that “…no changes to the PTC System are identified or proposed in this RFA [Request for Amendment].

All seven Class I railroads have signed on to a voluntary program established by the Federal Railroad Administration that enables workers to anonymously share situations in which there might be operational hazards.

Federal officials had renewed their calls for the Class I railroads to take part in the close call reporting system (C3RS) following the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. The Transportation Trade Department of the AFL-CIO had also pressed federal officials to urge the Class I railroads to participate in the program.

Railroad workers have been sounding the alarm for years over railway safety concerns, and a string of recent train derailments have brought these issues into the spotlight.

Greg Regan, the president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, said he has raised safety concerns in front of Congress multiple times in the past, saying it’s not that train accidents are up in the last few months, but they’ve been up over the last 10 years.

Technological change has always been a hallmark of the transportation sector. But with recent advancements in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies, the pace of and impact of technological change has been more rapid and significant than at any other time in the history of human mobility.

While our organizations represent different stakeholder communities with diverse perspectives, we are firmly aligned in our belief that the pace of technological change necessitates a more responsive federal apparatus that brings together the voice of leaders in innovation, employers, unions, and other key stakeholders to better understand and manage the broad impacts of new technologies on the workforce.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I am pleased to respond to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) notice regarding Union Pacific’s (UP) recent petition to suspend the use of block signals on its Winnemucca Subdivision. TTD consists of 37 affiliated unions representing the totality of rail labor, including both passenger and freight rail workers.[1] TTD endorses the comments of our affiliates, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD). We ask FRA to deny this application because UP’s request would result in a decrease in safety and is not warranted since UP itself made the decision to decrease the workforce and capital investment needed to maintain the Winnemucca Subdivision.

In its application, UP requests to temporarily “remove [Centralized Traffic Control (CTC)] limits and replace with [Track Warrant Control (TWC)] limits through the same area.” UP states that this request is made due to “an uncurable (sic) situation with contaminated track conditions that will not allow the signal system to function properly.” UP notes that “This condition is resulting in roughly 5 recrews a day for this area, leaving the new STB ruling to serve Foster Farms expeditiously, in jeopardy.”[2]

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I am pleased to respond to the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) notice regarding a recent application for a new special permit (21283-N) from Gas Innovations. TTD consists of 37 affiliated unions representing the totality of rail labor, including freight rail workers who transport hazmat daily and fire fighters who are called to respond to dangerous releases of hazardous materials. TTD endorses the comments of our affiliates, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD) and the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU). We ask PHMSA to deny this application until railroads are forced to take responsibility for creating a safer rail system and first responders are provided with adequate resources to safely and effectively respond to emergencies.[1]

Norfolk Southern Derailment and Hazmat Release

It is impossible to ignore recent events in East Palestine, Ohio, when discussing an application such as this one to introduce new hazardous materials to the freight rail system. A train derailment occurred at approximately 8:54 PM EST on February 3, 2023, in East Palestine, OH. The railroad, Norfolk Southern, reported the incident at 10:53 PM EST to the National Response Center. At that time, it was reported that an unknown number of the 150 train cars had derailed, but 20 of the cars were listed as carrying hazardous materials. As is being reported by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as of this writing, 38 rail cars derailed and a fire ensued which damaged an additional 12 cars. Local officials issued evacuation orders for the surrounding area and there have been reports of residents experiencing effects many miles away from the scene of the derailment.[2]

Reported by Timothy Noah for The New Republic.

On February 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, a small town (pop. 4,800) situated on the Pennsylvania border 20 miles south of Youngstown. The derailment spewed vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals into the air, killing fish in nearby streams and prompting an evacuation. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, warned that anyone who lingered in the immediate area would face “grave danger of death.” Five days later, DeWine said it was safe to return home, but local residents continued to report headaches and nausea.

If all this sounds reminiscent of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise and Noah Baumbach’s 2022 film adaptation of same, just imagine how it felt to Ben Ratner, an East Palestine resident who, along with various family members, worked as an extra on the movie when Baumbach was shooting nearby. “The first half … is all almost exactly what’s going on here,” Ratner told CNN.

Reported by Christopher Wilson and Caitlin Dickson for Yahoo News.

The fallout continues from the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border earlier this month, as local residents file lawsuits and some cast doubt on official assurances about air and water quality.

The derailment and evacuation

On Feb. 3, 50 train cars operated by Norfolk Southern derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a town of about 5,000 people located 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. That derailment resulted in a massive fire and Gov. Mike DeWine ordering an evacuation on Sunday, Feb. 5.