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Norfolk Southern, NTSB share same goal on rail transport safety

EAST PALESTINE — Norfolk Southern (NS) CEO Alan Shaw said his company and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are on the same page when it comes to making rail transport safer and endorsed the agency’s recommendations made following its investigation into last year’s train derailment in East Palestine, NS reported on Wednesday.

“We have a deep respect for Chair [Jennifer] Homendy and the important work of the NTSB. We appreciate her leadership, willingness to collaborate with us on next steps, and direct engagement with our operational leaders,” Shaw said via a press release. “Norfolk Southern and the NTSB share the same goal when it comes to safety. We’re committed to taking action that addresses their recommendations and to becoming the gold standard of safety for the industry.”

Homendy, who took the railroad to task during her closing remarks during the NTSB’s public board meeting held last month in East Palestine for what she considered investigation interference by the railroad and the decisions it made during the derailment response, met with Norfolk Southern on Wednesday. Homendy called that meeting “productive” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and gave Shaw credit for endorsing the recommendations. “[Shaw] made clear his commitment to working with @NTSB to advance #safety and to not only support all of our East Palestine #safety recommendations, but exceed them,” she posted.

The NTSB made four 34 recommendations following its probe of the rail disaster with four specifically directed to Norfolk Southern. Two recommendations targeted the decision to conduct a vent-and-burn of five vinyl chloride tankers. The NTSB asked that NS developed a policy that ensures a clear line of communication between the manufacturers and shippers of hazardous materials and full incident command of future derailments, as well as a policy that requires NS emergency-response contractors keep detailed records of information used to make such decisions and share the information with shippers, relevant chemical associations, and other entities that provide hazardous materials guidance.

The NTSB’s report found pertinent information regarding the condition of the tankers and what was going on inside of them was not relayed to the individuals who ultimately made the decision to vent and burn.

The NTSB also recommended that NS revise procedures to immediately provide emergency responders with an accurate copy of the train upon becoming aware of an accident. The probe found hours passed before first responders at the scene knew what was in the derailed cars. The NTSB further required that Norfolk Southern update submissions to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) Incident Database to accurately reflect the cause of package failures following the East Palestine derailment.

Other recommendations were directed at the rail industry as a whole, including a better wayside detection network and removing the outdated DOT-111 tank cars from hazardous material transport. The NTSB also called for better training for emergency crews who respond to derailments.

While Norfolk Southern officially endorsed those recommendations on Wednesday, the railroad had already made strides toward stronger rail safety and preventing another East Palestine prior to the NTSB board hearing and recommendations. Those strides are often overlooked when discussing Norfolk Southern’s response to the derailment.

Norfolk Southern became the first railroad to partner with RapidSOS — a digital platform that connects devices to over 16,000 emergency response agencies to immediately provide first responders with real-time access to train consists, train locations, and emergency response protocols. That partnership was announced in February. Last September, Norfolk Southern integrated AskRail — a software that can instantly provide users with accurate up-to-date data of a train car’s contents and the dangers of that cargo — into the Columbiana County and Beaver County emergency management agencies (EMAs) dispatching services.

In October, Norfolk Southern deployed its first Digital Train Inspection Portal in Leetonia, just 11 miles from the derailment site. The portal was developed in concert with the Georgia Tech Research Institution and uses advanced machine-visioning technology and artificial intelligence to find potential defects on moving trains using ultra-high-resolution cameras, machine vision and artificial intelligence. NS said the plan is to install 17 portals along its nearly 19,000-miles of track — one every thousand miles or less — by early 2025. Prior to the launch, Norfolk Southern had already added 250 hotbox detectors to its network of 900, reducing distance between detectors to an industry-leading 12 miles or so. It also quadrupled its acoustic-bearing detectors that would have picked up the overheated wheel-bearing — the catalyst of the East Palestine derailment.

Last summer, Norfolk Southern broke ground on the First Responder Training Center, located at the former site of the Jasar Recycling facility located on Edgeworth Ave. in East Palestine. NS committed $25 million to the center to provide ongoing, free training to first responders from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the greater region. The center will offer traditional fire-service training to all first-responders but more importantly it will offer specialized training for rail response and other transportational-related hazmat emergencies. NS also expanded its Operation Awareness & Response (OAR) — launched in 2015 — to connect emergency first responders in Norfolk Southern communities with information and training resources. The OAR program features a traveling training locomotive and railcars that give first responders first-hand, real-life experience in confronting rail-emergency scenarios.

In addition to the safety upgrades, Norfolk Southern took steps to improve the company’s safety-culture. NS officially joined a pilot program of the Federal Railroad Association’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System in February, becoming the first Class I railroad to do so. The system allows rail employees to confidentially report unsafe events that they experience while being protected from discipline. In May of 2023, Norfolk Southern appointed Atkins Nuclear Secured (ANS) to conduct an independent review of the company’s safety practices and implement a three-year roadmap of safety initiatives.

Following the findings of the NTSB investigation, NS promised to “advocate for more expedited phasing out of DOT-111 tank cars than federal regulations have provided” and announced the formation of a Vent and Burn Workgroup “to assess current practices and protocols to improve coordination for future events where a vent and burn may be necessary.”

Shaw has repeatedly said Norfolk Southern is “a safe railroad getting safer.” He reiterated those words in the company’s mid-year safety report released June 17.

“We made a promise to make Norfolk Southern the gold standard in safety, and we’re delivering on it,” he said. “While safety has always been priority number one, we never stop looking for ways to do better and are committed to making our safe railroad even safer.”

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