JACKSONVILLE — According to the Florida Times-Union, CSX Transportation has made great strides in improving its track safety over the past two years, an official with a federal agency overseeing the nation’s railroads said yesterday, and last week’s deadly Amtrak crash hasn’t altered that opinion.
CSXT operates the tracks near Crescent City, where the Amtrak Auto Train derailed Thursday, killing four people and injuring 150. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, is looking into the possibly that a misaligned track is the possible cause.
That has not yet been determined for sure, transportation safety board officials said, and even if it were the cause it might not affect the current safety compliance agreement CSXT entered into with the Federal Railroad Administration in 2000, after the railroad was criticized for poor and potentially unsafe track conditions. That agreement will be coming to an end May 1 because the Federal Railroad Administration is satisfied with the programs CSXT has implemented to improve its track conditions.
The timing of the Amtrak crash, just two days after the railroad administration agreed to end the agreement, is a coincidence, officials said.
“One is separate from the other,” said railroad administration spokesman Warren Flatau, who added that he wasn’t sure if the railroad administration’s inspections of CSXT track included looking at the specific rails near Crescent City where the Amtrak train derailed.
CSXT spokeswoman Kathy Burns said the crash hasn’t hurt the credibility of the Federal Railroad Administration or the safety agreement.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “I think the record shows we’ve made significant improvements.”
Burns said the railroad administration’s decision to end the safety checks was based upon the company’s better inspection procedures combined with infrastructure improvements totaling $1.2 billion during 2001 and 2002.
Steven Moss, a partner in the California consulting firm M.Cubed and author of a 1999 report called, “Why is there a train accident every ninety minutes?” said the FRA has a history of producing positive reports of railroads only to later find violations.
“The history of it is disturbing,” he said. “That doesn’t give anyone a great deal of confidence, obviously.”