The Norfolk Southern train derailment and the contamination of East Palestine from the subsequent burn off of vinylchloride was a horrible tragedy that has grabbed the attention of the American public and brought concerns of train safety measures back into the forefront of peoples minds. But these issues were long foreseen by regulators and the workers on these trains. This disaster and the at least 1,164 other train derailments from just last year illustrate a pretty clear pattern of inadequate safety precautions and the last time these concerns were brought up during the 2022 rail union strike, the Biden administration forced the rail union to accept a deal that ignored these safety concerns.

The specific issue that led to the derailment in East Palestine was the use of outdated brakes who’s use goes back to the civil war instead of newer electronic brakes. There was an Obama era regulation that mandated that trains carrying hazardous and flammable materials had to have these updated brakes. But after lobbying by the rail industry, the regulations were rescinded under the Trump administration. Even now after the crash, when Biden administration officials were asked about bringing back the Obama era regulation, they said no, they wanted congress to do it and cited rail industry opposition as a reason for the concern about bringing back the rule. 

More broadly the reason crashes like this are happening so frequently is due to what’s known as “precision scheduled railroading”. Precision scheduled railroading is an operational concept that almost every Class I North American Railroad has embraced. The goal of precision scheduled railroading is to lower operating ratios, which is how much a company needs to spend in order to make a dollar, as well as reduce the number of times a freight car has to stop and be sorted in classification yards. Some of the strategies used to reduce these operating ratios are point to point delivery, reducing staff, and increasing the length of trains. Point to point delivery is when a train travels directly to its destination, instead of going through a central hub like in a spoke-hub distribution system. This also often involves letting trucks do the last leg of the journey. The main safety concerns come out of the reduced staffing and lengthening of trains. Longer trains lead to a higher risk of derailment and crew fatigue because of the difficulty of operating the trains and the fact that the American railroad network was not designed for trains of that length. Additionally longer trains put more weight on the brakes and make it harder for them to react in time. The use of point to point delivery and longer trains allows the rail companies to have less staff because there are fewer trains that need inspection and fewer times where they need to be sorted at classification yards. Due to these measures railroads have been able to greatly reduce staffing. It’s estimated by the Surface Transportation Board that 30% of rail workers have been cut since 2018. 

Rail companies like Norfolk Southern use these strategies knowing the dangers of them, but choose to pursue them for the purpose of short term gains and raising their stock value. In 2022 they bought back $3.1 billion after buying back $3.4 billion in 2021. If they are content with putting the safety of people like the East Palestine residents in danger, then it is the role of the government to step in and prevent it from happening again. This could be done through regulation like the Obama era one on brakes or nationalization of the company.