December 11, 2025 | News, NTSB, STB
Congress returned from a holiday recess last week. Prior to Thanksgiving, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider three nominees to positions at federal agencies that have oversight of the rail industry. Richard Kloster was nominated to be a member of...
November 21, 2025 | News, NTSB, Railroad Safety, Top News
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued two safety alerts in November regarding rail operations: the first addressed the risks of shoving moves, and the second concerned the dangers of unexpected equipment moves. The BLET Safety Task Force urges all...
October 21, 2025 | FRA, News, NTSB, Railroad Safety, Top News
As the Federal government shutdown that began on October 1 continues, it is beginning to affect government agencies that serve the rail industry and BLET members. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been...
October 7, 2024 | Derailment, Headlines, NS, NTSB, Train Length
(Source: Progressive Railroading, October 3, 2024) The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined the probable cause of a March 2023 train derailment of a Norfolk Southern Railway train in Alabama was the combination of the coupling together of two...
September 26, 2024 | CSX, Fatigue, Headlines, NTSB
(Source: Trains.com, September 24, 2024) The probable cause of a fatal accident involving a conductor trainee in CSX’s yard in Cumberland, Md., last summer was the train’s movement through an unidentified and unmitigated close clearance location, the National...
August 6, 2024 | CPKC, Derailment, Headlines, NTSB
(Source: Associated Press, August 1, 2024) The fiery North Dakota derailment that burned for days early last month was the latest train crash to involve the flawed tank cars that the National Transportation Safety Board has been trying to get off the tracks for...
July 24, 2024 | East Palestine-NS, FRA, Headlines, Legislation, NTSB, Railroad Safety
(Source: Associated Press, July 23, 2024) Major freight railroads are rushing railcar inspections, reinforcing known safety concerns raised by unions for years, but at a House hearing Tuesday they’ll present new evidence from federal inspectors that railcar checks are...
July 23, 2024 | Fatality, Headlines, NS, NTSB
(Source: National Transportation Safety Board, July 22, 2024) On March 7, 2023, about 1:08 a.m. local time, a Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) conductor on NS train C75B106 was killed when the train collided with a dump truck as it entered a private highway-railroad...
July 22, 2024 | East Palestine-NS, Headlines, NTSB, Railroad Safety
(Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 21, 2024) After releasing its final report last week, the NTSB has issued more than 30 safety recommendations to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. These include improving the performance of defect detection...
July 16, 2024 | East Palestine-NS, Headlines, NS, NTSB
(Source: Associated Press, June 25, 2024) The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Norfolk Southern repeatedly tried to interfere with the agency’s investigation into the East Palestine derailment and shape its conclusions about the...
