ATLANTA — Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern announced Wednesday it was endorsing the safety and policy recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board in response to their train’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023.
In February 2023, the Atlanta rail company’s train derailed while traveling through northeast Ohio, with dozens of the railcars leaving the tracks. The derailment also included 11 cars containing hazardous materials that spilled.
Speaking with Channel 2 Action News, Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said the company had immediately implemented a new safety plan in response to the derailment.
Now, more than a year after the incident, Norfolk Southern’s leadership says they’re on board for the recommendations made by NTSB to prevent future disasters like the one in East Palestine.
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NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy met with senior leaders at Norfolk Southern on Wednesday to discuss how they would implement the recommendations, speaking with 80 operational leaders at a railroad Safety Summit.
Shaw thanked Homendy for her leadership and the NTSB’s work and said the company would work with the agency for the steps to come and had implemented new safety enhancements that align with the government’s recommendations.
“We appreciate her leadership, willingness to collaborate with us on next steps, and direct engagement with our operational leaders,” Shaw said in a statement. “Norfolk Southern and the NTSB share the same goal when it comes to safety. We’re committed to taking action that addresses their recommendations and to becoming the gold standard of safety for the industry.”
Among the recommendations by NTSB, rail companies were encouraged to improve defect detection systems, modernize the national tank car fleet which carries hazardous materials and put critical real-time information in the hands of emergency responders, according to NSC’s release.
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In the past 16 months, the company said it had led the charge to implement safety enhancements and the use of new technologies to meet the NTSB’s recommendations, including partnering with RapidOS to connect emergency response agencies to devices on trains to aid assistance and rescue efforts.
The company also announced the Vent and Burn Workgroup, which was a requirement of a recent NSC settlement with the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency to assess the current practices and protocols for future events where a vent and burn may be necessary.
Vent and burns are when explosives are used to cut holes in a tank to vent hazardous materials.
“Emergency response personnel use this process primarily when [an] uncontrolled release of large amounts of hazardous material because of tank failure is imminent,” according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
A vent and burn procedure was performed with the derailment in East Palestine, which NSC said was to avoid the buildup of pressure of hazardous materials and to circumvent an uncontrolled explosion.
Days after the derailment, NSC initiated the vent and burn and toxic materials were released into the local environment, prompting a multi-day evacuation of the town’s residents.
Now moving forward, the company has launched an implemented a six-point safety plan, including new hot bearing detectors, reduced core network average distances between detectors, the development of digital train inspection portals, further investment in training first responders for hazmat response and quadrupling acoustic bearing detectors, among other efforts.
NSC also invested $25 million in a new first responder training center in East Palestine, which broke ground earlier this year, and is working with labor unions to join the FRA’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System.
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