(The following article by Ken Belson was posted on the New York Times website on March 20.)
NEW YORK — The Federal Railroad Administration said yesterday that it was speeding up inspection of 1,300 miles of track in New York operated by CSX Transportation after several derailments upstate in recent months.
The agency, which enforces rail safety regulations nationwide, took the step less than a week after a CSX train with several cars carrying liquid propane derailed in Oneida and burst into flames, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and the closing of a stretch of the New York Thruway.
The inspection was scheduled for next month, but the head of the railroad administration, Joseph H. Boardman, who is a former commissioner of the New York Department of Transportation, ordered it moved up. After tracks in New York are examined, the agency will inspect the rest of the 21,000 miles of track that CSX operates in 23 states around the country, as well as networks operated by other freight rail companies.
“The Oneida incident convinced me to do this,” Mr. Boardman said. “I want to know if the company has put in place the best safety measures. I want to know what their safety culture is.”
In December, the agency proposed a large increase in fines for safety violations to prompt railroads to comply more closely with regulations. A final ruling is expected soon.
CSX could face civil penalties if it is found to have skirted safety regulations. The company, with $9.6 billion in annual sales, paid $1.9 million in penalties to the Federal Railroad Administration last year, 55 percent more than in 2005.
Robert Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX, said his company was cooperating with government inspectors. He noted that train derailments companywide had declined 24 percent last year, and that they were down again this year.
“We’re very focused on safety and having an improving safety record,” Mr. Sullivan said.
There are a multitude of fines for a multitude of violations, so fines could be heavy although the number of accidents decreased.
Incidents involving all railroads fell 12.4 percent last year to a record low, according to railroad administration statistics.
Still, the accidents in New York have alarmed federal regulators. In Oneida last week, 28 cars — most of them tankers — derailed, causing a huge explosion, and the fire was so hot that firefighters could only watch as it burned itself out over several hours.
Mr. Boardman said the agency was also looking into an episode in January in which CSX freight cars fell from an overpass into the front yards of homes in East Rochester. In December, two derailments occurred in Erie and Chautauqua Counties in upstate New York, one of which involved a CSX train.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
In deciding to step up the inspections, Mr. Boardman said he wanted to make sure local emergency service agencies were not overtaxed. In addition to federal inspections, railroads must check their tracks as often as every week.
Several rail experts said that a number of major snowstorms in recent months could have contributed to the incidents along CSX’s main route between Albany and Chicago.
“For as long as railroads have been around, they’ve had trouble dealing with snow,” said Daniel McBride, who covers CSX and other industrial companies for H&R Block Financial Advisers.
He said that Burlington Northern, which operates primarily in the western United States, had faced similar problems.
The interruptions in service upstate may have a small effect on CSX’s financial performance in the first quarter this year. But CSX and other railroads are more likely to be hurt by a slowdown in demand related to a cooling economy.