Derailment in Hyndman, PA. Photo: NTSB
But, as the Hyndman derailment demonstrated, moving those hazardous materials is a potential life-and-death question for communities all along the industry's 140,000 miles of rail. And unlike our roads, bridges, tunnels, and public transportation systems, the entire Class I freight rail system is privately operated and maintained. In other words, the railroad companies themselves get to decide how much to invest in repair, maintenance and other safety measures, and how much to keep as profit.Increasingly, railroads are choosing to boost profits and pay shareholders rather than invest in safety. In interviews with Motherboard, workers said that since their respective companies adopted PSR, they barely recognize the work that they do. All of their priorities have changed. What used to be about safety is now about cutting costs. Among the changes:Have changes in the freight rail industry affected you? Do you work in the freight rail industry? Do you ship goods regularly via freight rail? Do you live in a small town regularly impacted by long trains? We'd love to hear from you. Email Aaron Gordon at aaron.gordon@vice.com.
- Workers now have to inspect many multiples more rail cars in a fraction of the time, barely giving them enough time to walk the entire train
- Trains are longer than they used to be and assembled haphazardly, with little thought as to where the heavy and empty cars should go to avoid derailments because it would keep the train in the yard longer
- Shops and yards that used to perform inspections along routes have been closed, meaning there are fewer inspection points
- Routes have been changed so cars stop for inspection less frequently
- Maintenance is deferred as long as possible
- Knowledgeable and safety-conscious supervisors have often been replaced by businessmen who cultivate a culture of fear and intimidation around reporting unsafe equipment; doing so would keep the train in the yard longer, hurting the metrics on which supervisors are graded
- While there are strict federal rules governing how often the people running the trains must rest so as to minimize accidents, the workers performing safety-critical inspections have been pushed to compensate for mass layoffs by working 16 hours per shift or more, discouraged from taking lunch breaks, and sometimes required to work overtime or risk losing their jobs
This is just some of the damage caused by the Lac Megantic derailment. Credit: Lucas Oleniuk via Getty
"Safety Fourth"
Granite Canyon derailment. Photo: NTSB
The Moneyball of Railroading
Harrison (right) and Ackman (left) promised to "shake up the board" of Canadian Pacific Credit: David Cooper via Getty