JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Satisfied with improvements in CSX Transportation’s safety record, federal rail officials said they see no need to extend a safety compliance agreement past its May 1 expiration despite a recent derailment on CSX tracks that killed four people, according to a wire service.
On April 16, just two days before the Auto Train derailment, Federal Railroad Administration officials met with CSX to talk about ending the safety agreement which was implemented in 2000 after the railroad was criticized for poor and potentially unsafe track conditions, said CSX spokeswoman Susan Keegan.
Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the railroad administration in Washington, said Monday that CSX had met the conditions of the agreement and there were no plans at this time to extend it past May 1 because of the derailment.
“We are pleased with the progress they have made in the past year,” he said.
Four people were killed and more than 150 were injured in the Amtrak derailment near Crescent City on Thursday. The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing on a misaligned track as the possible cause.
The lead engineer told the NTSB that he saw the tracks ahead about 10 inches out of alignment and slammed on emergency brakes.
Keegan said the track had been inspected visually twice the day of the accident and had also passed sophisticated inspections in October and December.
Wide gauge tracks, where the rails are too far apart, were among the complaints against CSX in the 2000 audit. Parts of the original safety agreement, which expired in 2001, were extended for a year to give CSX “a good opportunity to integrate the recommendations in the agreement,” Flatau said.
CSX is a Jacksonville-based railway giant with some 23,000 miles of tracks in 23 states and Canada.