‘A good time to act.’ Hawley joins bipartisan push to take on railroads after Ohio crash

The federal government is poised to take on the powerful freight rail industry following the February train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by the Ohio delegation introduced legislation that would set new rules on hazardous material trains and require the largest freight companies to operate trains with a crew of at least two people.

Later in the day, the Federal Railroad Administration, the primary safety regulator of freight and passenger railroads, lauded the legislation and announced a new initiative to inspect railroad tracks that carry large loads of hazardous materials.

The developments come on the heels of the Feb. 3 crash of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. While no one was seriously hurt in the debacle, the train was carrying hazardous materials, some of which were burned in the aftermath to avoid a potential explosion.

For years, regulators, employees and customers have been complaining about the power of freight railroads, which have cut routes and slashed staffing in recent years as they implement new business models designed to drive up profits at the behest of Wall Street.

In a multi-part series that published in December, The Kansas City Star revealed how states and localities are largely powerless to regulate the rail industry, which is running longer trains with fewer employees and cutting back on safety training and maintenance, according to interviews with railroad workers from across the country.

The Star investigation followed the June 27 crash of an Amtrak train with a dump truck outside of Mendon, Missouri. That high-speed collision killed four people and injured dozens on an unprotected rail crossing that had long been identified as a safety hazard. The series showed that the Mendon crossing was not unique: in fact, hundreds like it across the country have raised the fears of residents and been put on lists for safety improvements that sometimes come too late.

Members of Congress and federal regulators were already weighing stricter regulations for the powerful freight industry. But the Ohio crash has brought a surge of political attention to rail safety — particularly as Republicans were quick to use the derailment as a cudgel against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“It shouldn’t take a massive railroad disaster for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve — not corporations like Norfolk Southern,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said in a news release.

Brown and his fellow Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, a Republican, introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2023 on Wednesday. It’s co-sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican; Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican; and Pennsylvania’s two Democratic Senators: Bob Casey and John Fetterman.

When asked in the Capitol Wednesday why similar action didn’t come after an Amtrak crash in Missouri killed four people, Hawley said rail safety has been a pervasive problem.

“Hopefully the East Palestine deal, combined with the rail strike, will bring enough attention to this issue that we might be able to get something done,” he said.

Taking on big rail

In a news release, Brown said railroad lobbyists have fought for years “to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine.” The legislation, he said, will finally hold those companies accountable and make railroads and the communities they run through safer.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the bipartisan effort on the Senate floor Wednesday and said he would work to help the legislation clear the Senate.

“This is precisely the kind of proposal we need to see in Congress, a bipartisan rail safety bill, one that includes provisions relevant to the accident that happened a month ago,” Schumer said.

While the legislation enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate, it’s unclear how it would fare in the GOP-led House of Representatives.

Republicans have spent weeks criticizing President Joe Biden’s response to the disaster, but some have cautioned against rushing new regulations until more is known about the crash, Politico reported.

Those include U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican who chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican who leads the subcommittee on rail.

Officials with the transportation committee could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. In December, Graves would not definitively say whether his committee would increase accountability on the rail industry.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids said the bipartisan proposals in the Senate “show promise, and she’ll consider any common sense solutions to keep Kansans safe as part of her role on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major transportation disasters, has said the Ohio train crew received an alert about an overheated wheel bearing shortly before dozens of the train’s cars left the tracks.

While no one was seriously injured, the ramifications of the disaster are still being studied. Residents of the small community are worried about the long-term health and environmental impacts from the release of dangerous chemicals like vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate.

The Senate legislation would require all trains carrying hazardous materials to face new regulations. Rail companies would also need to create emergency response plans and provide information to state officials in advance hazmat train travel.

The bill would empower the transportation secretary to create new rules regarding train length, rail car inspections and train speeds. It also requires new regulations on wayside defect detectors, which can find problems with axles or signals, and the use of hotbox detectors to prevent derailments from wheel bearing failures.

A spokesperson for the Association of American Railroads, which includes Amtrak and all seven of the nation’s major freight railroads, criticized the bill and called for stakeholders to work together for “real solutions.”

“Railroads have been clear that they support fact-driven policies that address the cause of this accident and enhance safety,” the association said in a statement. “As we continue to review this bill, it is clear it includes many of the same wish list items AAR and others have clearly said would not prevent a similar accident in the future such as the administration’s arbitrary crew size rule.”

The association has for years objected to proposed administration regulations that would require most trains to be staffed by at least two people — a threat to railroad plans to move some conductors out of locomotives.

‘A good time to act’

Disasters often spark action.

The 1987 crash of a Conrail train in Maryland led to locomotive engineer certification and crew drug testing after members of the crew tested positive for cannabis. Similarly, a 2008 deadly crash in Chatsworth, California, pushed lawmakers to require positive train control, a sort of autopilot for locomotives that can bring trains to a stop without intervention from an engineer.

“Even though no one died in this, this feels like something that is going to prompt regulation,” said Bill Stephens, a Trains magazine writer who has covered the railroad industry for decades.

Generally, deadly crashes are the most persuasive to policy makers.

“But I think that when people saw that black column of smoke rising when they did the controlled burn, that puts an image in your brain and you think, ‘What if this happened in my town or what if this happened in the middle of Kansas City?’” he said. “Then the scale hits home for people.”

Stephens said some of the new rules proposed in the Senate legislation are not directly related to the East Palestine crash. But they do nod to ongoing criticisms from employees and labor unions. Rail workers in December averted a national strike only after an act of Congress.

Employees have complained that massive cuts in railroad workforces and new scheduling requirements have made their always tough and unpredictable jobs more unbearable. A labor deal brokered by a special White House panel provided big raises but only offered rail workers one extra day of paid leave — a major sticking point for workers who wanted to reject the deal.

Hawley acknowledged those festering concerns in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“Let’s think about the tens of thousands of rail workers in Missouri who couldn’t get more than one day of paid sick leave in this last deal,” he told The Star. “And I think that hopefully raised some awareness about rail workers and some of the challenges they face, some of the health and safety challenges. So it’s a good time to act.

“I haven’t tried to pass something of this magnitude before on rail issues, so we’ll find out.”

The bill is being supported by unions, who have long been warning about the consequences of railroads’ actions in recent years.

“It’s frustrating that it takes something like this to show what we’ve been saying is true. This was clearly predictable. We’ve been saying it forever,” said Jared Cassity, a national official with the SMART Transportation Division, the nation’s largest railroad union.

The union is supportive of the legislation, which Cassity characterized as “common-sense” regulations that could reverse dangerous industry trends.

“The railroads got us into this scenario. They’re not going to get us out,” Cassity told The Star. “We just can’t allow time to hurt us here. People tend to forget pretty quickly, especially in DC. It’s got to stay the priority if it has any chance of survival.”

Other rail rules in the works

Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose on Wednesday praised the bipartisan Senate legislation, saying it was in line with previous recommendations from Buttigieg, who oversees the agency.

The FRA also promoted a new national track inspection initiative that will target areas of high hazmat train traffic.

“It’s going to start right here in East Palestine,” he said at an Ohio briefing. “These inspections will use a combination of human inspection and technology combined. We need to keep our nation’s railroads safe.”

Visiting the Kansas City area on Monday, Buttigieg pledged to hold freight railroads to stricter standards. He acknowledged the efforts railroads have made to influence all branches of government, including the Federal Railroad Administration, and avoid regulatory scrutiny.

State lawmakers have for years attempted to implement new regulations on freight railroads. It’s a challenging prospect as multiple courts over the past quarter century have ruled that only the federal government can impose rules affecting railroad operations.

Missouri state lawmakers have filed at least three bills this year that would place more restrictions on trains in an effort to prevent disasters similar to the Amtrak crash and the derailment in Ohio.

Two of the bills would ban railroads from allowing trains to carry hazardous materials if the train is longer than 8,500 feet. State Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat and sponsor of one of the bills, said longer trains are more likely to tip over and cause environmental and economic disasters.

Sauls told The Star he’s considering merging his legislation with another bill that would require freight trains to have at least two qualified crew members.

While the bill has yet to receive a hearing, Sauls said he hopes the Ohio crash may give lawmakers extra motivation to pass it this session.

“It’s always tragic when something like this happens,” said Sauls, referring to the Ohio disaster. “And you never want that to happen to your community.”