Safety
FRA report: All railroads met statutory PTC requirements by 2018’s end
(Source: Progressive Railroading 02/19/2019) The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) late last week released a status update regarding railroads’ self-reported progress toward implementing positive train control (PTC) by 2018’s end. All 41 railroads either met the end-of-2018 statutory deadline for full implementation or submitted requests for an extension up to two additional years by demonstrating they…
Read MoreNTSB recommends new safety measures following tank car chlorine incident
(Source: Progressive Railroading 02/15/2019) The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday issued five safety recommendations following its investigation of an August 2016 chlorine release from a ruptured tank car near New Martinsville, West Virginia. Eight people were injured in connection with the accident, in which 178,000 pounds of liquefied compressed chlorine was released over two-and-a-half hours after a…
Read MoreTSB: Canadian Pacific train moved on its own before fatal derailment
(Source: Progressive Railroading 02/06/2019) A Canadian Pacific unit grain train began to move on its own prior to a fatal derailment that occurred early Monday near Field, British Columbia, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) announced yesterday. The derailment, which occurred between the Upper and Lower Spiral Tunnel, resulted in the deaths of the train’s three crew members. They were…
Read MoreRunaway one-man train crash in Western Australia contributed to US$600 million loss in productivity
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, January 22, 2019) SYDNEY, Australia — Mining giant BHP has revealed a freight train derailment in Western Australia, a plant outage in South Australia and a copper mine fire in Chile have led to a $US600 million ($838 million) hit to productivity for the first half of the 2019 financial year.…
Read MoreFeds, states and railroads team up to boost grade crossing safety
(Source: Progressive Railroading January 2019) By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor Although fatalities resulting from train-vehicle collisions at grade crossings are much lower than they were decades ago, a leveling off of those statistics in recent years has federal, state and railroad industry officials calling for new strategies to further drive down the number of crossing…
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