[Freight Weekly] Rail Safety Top of Mind Again

📜Biptarisan DC lawmakers want rail safety legislation as a top priority as the NTSB’s final report was announced regarding East Palestine derailment📜

Lawmakers in both parties are calling for Congress to take rail safety legislation as a higher priority moving forward. This news comes as the latest derailment of a freight train just occurred today in Matteson, Ill., a village outside Chicago. The purpose of the legislation is to enhance safety protocols for all rail. Read more:

• ABC Channel 7 reports that a freight train owned by the Canadian National Railway Company derailed in Matteson, requiring local residents to be evacuated. The derailment occurred in a residential zone.

• Derailments have remained hot topics in the news media after the high-profile derailment of the Norfolk Southern freight train that was carrying toxic materials that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, early last year.

• Congress has pushed for bipartisan overhauls of rail safety regulations, including crew safeguards, labor protections, testing, and more. The current measure being considered is the Railway Safety Act of 2023.

• U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said, “Railroads have been treating derailments as the cost of doing business — each incident poses a risk to communities, train crews, first responders and the environment.”

• Cantwell is chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which adopted the Railway Safety Act in May of last year.

• The NTSB recently announced that a failed wheel bearing caused the derailment and accused Norfolk Southern of threatening the agency.

• NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called NS and the company’s actions during the investigation "unconscionable" and "reprehensible."

Consider this: Despite all of these events, including the most recent Matteson derailment, derailments have climbed by 13.5 percent, according to safety data collected by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Transportation Dept.

CONTEXT: “Failed Wheel Bearing Caused Norfolk Southern Train Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio” - National Transportation Safety Board press release

🛤️More on the Matteson, Ill., derailment…🛤️

Chicago Sun-Times reports that no injuries were reported at the derailment site. A spokesperson for the village of Matteson told the news media that a possible chemical leak linked to the derailment had prompted the mandatory evacuation we mentioned above. According to the local authorities, no fires have yet erupted.

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