Rail safety requires clear-eyed discourse and real solutions

February’s train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, reminded Americans how a single incident can impact communities. Fair or not, it also shook confidence in freight railroads — critical to the economy yet often misunderstood as a monolith or public utility.

While it remains challenging to assuage the justified concerns of those affected, we must have an honest conversation about rail safety as the discussion shifts to policy responses to the derailment. As Brookings Institution fellow Clifford Winston recently argued, “rail transport has an excellent safety record in the past decade, including a high success rate in moving hazardous materials.” He added that industries like rail and aviation have a clear incentive for safety.

Indeed, the industry’s top priority is and always has been ensuring the U.S. freight rail system is the safest in the world and it has historically supported data-driven federal measures as a complement to voluntary measures. Contrary to critics’ claims, the industry does not oppose all legislative efforts following the derailment, and it sees a feasible path forward on proven policy solutions.

Corporate skepticism, suspicion of data and a belief that railroads are unsafe is plausible given the nature of media coverage, but facts are essential.

First, railroads invest over $20 billion annually in maintaining the physical network, resulting in the nation’s highest-rated infrastructure and the best freight rail system globally.

Second, this investment has made rail the safest way to move goods on land, especially hazardous materials, with the hazmat accident rate down by 78 percent since 2000, and 2022 saw the rate of hazmat incidents in the industry’s history.

Third, the Class I railroads’ mainline accident rate in 2022 was also at an all-time low, as was the employee injury rate.

The top official at one of the a freight rail regulatory agency put it plainly: “To the extent hazardous materials can be moved on rail [the better],” Surface Transportation Board Chair Martin Oberman recently stated.

At the same time, railroads recognize the import role of their employees who help move goods safely each day. Railroads are growing their ranks amid economic uncertainty — the employee base is currently the highest it’s been in over three years.

The overall safety of railroads is attributable to an all-the-above approach at work each day, which includes technology like Positive Train Control, or PTC, as well as sensors that can measure equipment safety, manual and technologically driven inspections, and continued analysis and adaptation of protocols, particularly for hazardous material transport.

Despite these truths, we must take further steps, including through voluntary actions and technologies.

For instance, railroads are installing approximately 1,000 additional wayside “hotbox detectors” on the national network — the systems meant to mitigate against incidents such as the Ohio derailment. The 6,000 detectors that exist today because of the industry’s inherent incentive for safety, not because it was told to do so. Nonetheless, all large railroads are also lowering alert thresholds to be more cautious.

Training is also essential. Railroads are reinforcing existing training programs and expanding access to information for first responders. In 2023, the railroads will train approximately 20,000 first responders in local communities and can also provide another 2,000 first responders with free in-depth training at our facility in Colorado. To help first responders in local communities, railroads are also expanding access to information about the content of materials hauled on any given train via the AskRail phone app.

All of this is representative of a three-prong approach to safety: prevention, mitigation and response. Together with the industry’s commitment to zero incidents and strong public safety record, Americans and their public officials can trust railroads to do the right thing in response to the Ohio incident and to prevent others.

Jefferies is president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads