Rail union says Virginia derailment renews questions about Norfolk Southern’s safety practices

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The union representing locomotive engineers says Thursday night’s derailment of a coal train in Virginia renews questions about Norfolk Southern’s safety practices.

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The derailment occurred as he descended the Appalachian Mountains near Elliston about 20 miles (32.19 kilometres) outside of Roanoke. Fortunately, it involved coal-fired cars and not hazardous materials like the one that generated a huge cloud of black smoke and forced evacuations in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine after the Norfolk Southern train derailed in February. The Ohio derailment sparked nationwide concerns about railroad safety and calls for reforms from congressmen and regulators.

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“Now we’re lucky because it’s coal. If it had been ethanol or LPG or chlorine or something like that, it would have been a very different situation,” said Randy Fannon, who leads the Safety Task Force of the Association of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

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The 19 cars on the Virginia coal train derailed around 7:45 p.m. Thursday but remained upright and none of the coal was spilled.

Before derailing, the crew received a critical alert from the track-side detector that the wheel bearing was overheating. But unlike a derailment in East Palestine where the crew received little warning, the Virginia train was safely stopped by the crew after being alerted to the potential danger.

The conductor found the railcar, which sounded the alarm and confirmed that the bearing had overheated. But a spokesman for the railway said that all components appeared to be intact during a visual inspection.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatow said the railroad decided to try moving the train to a siding, where the crew could safely position the car as the temperature rose without obstructing the main track. But the train derailed before it reached the side of the road.

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National Transportation Safety Board officials said late Friday that they would investigate Virginia’s derailment. While union and railroad officials involved in the NTSB investigation are not permitted to speak publicly before that agency releases its findings, Fannon discussed details of the incident on Friday afternoon when the FRA was still leading the investigation. The NTSB had not yet taken the lead.

Fannon said someone at the railroad’s Atlanta headquarters who was working in the “hot box detector office” told the crew to go ahead and move the train 8 miles (12.87 kilometers) down the track. The crew told union officials that they were not comfortable with the train moving at 40 mph, so they kept the speed at about 20 mph. But the train still derailed.

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Spokesman Tom Crewson said Norfolk Southern will use the deviation to help inform changes it is making to improve safety.

This derailment should not have happened. Crowson said. “We are working towards our goal of being the gold standard for safety in the rail industry, and this incident strengthens our resolve.”

The FRA and NTSB said they were investigating safety practices in southern Norfolk after the derailment of East Palestine and several others in the past two years.

The NTSB is conducting a detailed investigation to determine whatever contributed to the derailment in East Palestine, but investigators said in their initial report that an overheating load on a rail car carrying plastic pellets likely caused the derailment. The resulting fire burned for several days as several vehicles carrying hazardous materials spilled their contents. The officials then decided to detonate five vinyl chloride cars and burn the chemical because they were concerned that the tank cars might explode.

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“NS is still in the spotlight and it will stay that way until they make some changes,” Fanon said.

In the years before Norfolk Southern began overhauling its operations in 2019 and making sweeping job cuts, Fannon said the railroad would usually send a mechanical inspector to check the car after finding an overheated bearing to determine if it was safe to move the train. This no longer happens after all the Inspector demotions.

“I think the key to this is not having any qualified mechanic check it out,” Fannon said.

Norfolk Southern, like all freight railroads, has streamlined its operations over the past several years to reduce costs by relying more on running fewer and longer trains so that they don’t need as many crews or locomotives. The Brotherhood of Locomotive and Train Engineers and other rail unions said the changes make railroads more dangerous, reduce staffing and make it difficult to take the time to properly inspect cars or complete necessary preventive maintenance.

The railroads defended their safety record.

Railroad officials said they do not believe the cuts jeopardize safety, and emphasized that they continue to meet federal minimum standards. Alan Shaw, chief executive of Norfolk Southern, said he believes the NS is a safe rail line and is committed to improving that.

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