Rail Company Blocked Safety Rules Before Derailment

Lever News reports:

Before this weekend’s fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment prompted emergency evacuations in Ohio, the company helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.

Though the company’s 150-car train in Ohio reportedly burst into 100-foot flames upon derailing — and was transporting materials that triggered a fireball when they were released and incinerated — it was not being regulated as a “high-hazard flammable train,” federal officials told The Lever.

Amid the lobbying blitz against stronger transportation safety regulations, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks — all while the company shed thousands of employees despite warnings that understaffing is intensifying safety risks.

Read the full article. There’s much more.

“the Ohio disaster is the latest consequence of the rail industry’s cost-cutting, profit-at-all cost business model” https://t.co/IzEw3fRdL1

— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) February 10, 2023