Articles Tagged with ''railroad industry safety''

Metro-North Commuter Railroad Co. – a company whose safety culture was criticized by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) after a fatal train derailment in the Bronx in December -- is in trouble with the feds again.

In the wake of the derailment and collision of two passenger trains in Connecticut last May, the National Transportation Safety Board – which conducted an investigation into the accident -- has issued recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Metro-North Railroad.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Wednesday announced its intention to issue a proposed rule requiring two-person train crews on crude oil trains and establishing minimum crew size standards for most main line freight and passenger rail operations.

Metro-North Railroad – whose train derailment in the Bronx in December killed four passengers and injured approximately 70 others – made being on time a higher priority than being safe, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

In the wake of a series of fatal and environmentally catastrophic train accidents, the railroad industry and federal regulators have agreed on a set of voluntary measures intended to increase the safety of crude oil train shipments.

Positive train control technology – which some in the railroad industry have opposed due to its cost – would have prevented the fatal Dec. 1st derailment in New York, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which has finished its on-scene investigative work.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended that the type of tank car involved in the recent Canadian train derailment and inferno be retrofitted or phased out of use because it was unsafe, according to Board records.