How Norfolk Southern’s accident charge compares to different rail firms

Norfolk Southern, the corporate whose practice derailed and launched poisonous chemical compounds in East Palestine, Ohio, final month, as soon as had the bottom accident charge of all the main practice firms within the U.S. However whereas different large rail traces have greater than halved their accident charges prior to now 20 years, Norfolk Southern’s has stayed largely the identical.

A evaluation of security knowledge by NBC Information confirmed that from 2018 to 2022, Norfolk Southern averaged 0.88 accidents per million miles, which is barely above the common of the nation’s six different Class-I freight railroads over the identical interval.

In contrast, from 2003 to 2007, the opposite six practice firms averaged 2.26 accidents per million miles, whereas Norfolk Southern boasted a low of 0.96.

Norfolk Southern’s charge has stayed comparatively flat, regardless that it has made investments in security methods and applied sciences at a stage just like its rivals. 

As a class, practice accidents embody derailments, collisions and different related incidents involving rail tools. 

Varied stakeholders provide completely different explanations for Norfolk Southern’s stagnant accident charge. Critics level to a shrinking workforce and an elevated workload, which they are saying has led to larger worker fatigue and human error as the corporate tries to buoy effectivity and revenue. However Norfolk Southern says its accident charge has stayed about the identical as a result of its mileage traveled has gone down, shifting the ratio. As a uncooked complete, the corporate says, its variety of accidents has dropped 21% since 2019.

Connor Spielmaker, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson, famous that the rail firm had fewer derailments in 2022 than in another yr of the previous decade, and that its worker harm charge has improved by 35% since 2020. 

Nevertheless, leaders of the union of staff who work for Norfolk Southern say the workforce declines communicate for themselves: Norfolk Southern had 18,100 staff on the finish of 2021, in line with paperwork it filed with the Securities and Change Fee, down from greater than 30,000 in 2011. 

Russell Quimby, who served as a Nationwide Transportation Security Board accident investigator for greater than 20 years, mentioned that general, practice firms’ enterprise has bounced again since pandemic lockdowns, however workforce ranges have remained stagnant since prior reductions. 

That has left practice employees overwhelmed, he mentioned.

“They’re fortunate to get adequate relaxation, so many are chronically fatigued on a regular basis,” Quimby mentioned. “That has a significant impact on morale and security.”

It’s doable {that a} contracting workforce performed a task within the rising share of Norfolk Southern accidents attributable to human error, which rose from nearly 40% of its accidents in 2003 to just about 60% in 2022, in line with knowledge reviewed by NBC Information. 

That’s the highest the determine has been prior to now 20 years and about 10 share factors larger than the common of the main practice firms.

Norfolk Southern will not be an outlier in shedding staff, although. As traders and stockholders have pushed rail firms to pursue precision scheduled railroading — an method that makes an attempt to maximise the variety of rail automobiles shifting inside a scheduled timeline — many practice firms have minimize their workforces since at the least 2016, in line with an NBC Information evaluation of Floor Transportation Board knowledge. 

All seven main U.S. railroad firms have additionally elevated the size of trains in recent times, in line with a Authorities Accountability Workplace report revealed in December. One firm, unnamed within the report, mentioned the proportion of trains working at practically two miles in size elevated from lower than 3% in 2017 to greater than 25% in 2021. 

In the meantime, the variety of employees accountable for tools upkeep declined by practically 40% and practice operators by nearly 27% from 2011 to 2021, the report mentioned. 

Elizabeth Repko, the GAO’s director of bodily infrastructure, mentioned there may be some nervousness that longer trains and smaller staffs may result in breakdowns in security. She added that railroad unions and inspectors have additionally raised security considerations about crews not having the “acceptable coaching” to run these longer traces and steered they require extra work so may result in larger fatigue. 

“Having correct coaching and never experiencing fatigue are vital issues of safety that everybody agrees make a practice’s operation extra secure,” Repko mentioned.

Jonathon Lengthy, chairman of the American Rail System Federation union, mentioned in a letter to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine earlier this month that Norfolk Southern (which he known as “NS”) has been on a “quest for extra file breaking earnings on the sacrifice of security.”

“Administration representatives are given marching orders to exalt cash over the integrity and security of NS’s monitor construction and the protection of its Staff, due to NS’s value chopping enterprise mannequin,” he wrote. Lengthy didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The union additionally alleged that Norfolk Southern has relied more and more on automation and expertise, moderately than employees, to keep up security requirements.

However Spielmaker mentioned Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw has dedicated to rebuilding the agency’s security tradition, vowed to work with regulators and continues to take a position over $1 billion per yr in new security expertise, tools and infrastructure.

In December, he added, the corporate unveiled a brand new technique that comes with a “holistic method to measuring success.”

“A part of that’s how we deal with our workforce, and this announcement adopted many months of file hiring at Norfolk Southern to replenish our conductor workforce. Going ahead, in instances of financial downturn, as an alternative of furloughing staff — we are going to practice them,” he mentioned.

Shaw informed lawmakers whereas testifying on Capitol Hill final week that he’s “deeply sorry” for the crash in East Palestine.

Following the derailment, Norfolk Southern introduced a six-point plan to handle security considerations, although it doesn’t change the dimensions of the corporate’s workforce. As an alternative, the plan says it’s going to improve funding in expertise and be part of a federal program that allows railroads and staff to confidentially report security considerations.

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned it has launched a particular investigation of Norfolk Southern’s group and security tradition. Since December 2021, the board mentioned, it has launched 5 groups of investigators to probe vital accidents that concerned Norfolk Southern.

Two of these incidents, together with one which killed a Norfolk Southern worker, occurred this month. 

Quimby mentioned the investigation may take a few yr.