(The following report appeared on Baltimore television station WBAL’s website on June 10.)
BALTIMORE — Railroad workers still have safety concerns over a Baltimore tunnel almost four years after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed and caught fire.
At a U.S. Mayor’s Conference event in Chicago Friday, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley addressed his concerns about hazardous materials rail transports.
Last month, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., overturned a lower court’s ruling that upheld that city’s new law restricting such rail transports.
A 2001 derailment in the Howard Street tunnel shut down Baltimore as an ensuing fire burned inside for days.
O’Malley has since appealed to CSX, asking the company to provide advanced daily notice of the contents of freight trains traveling through local jurisdictions. According to the mayor’s press office, CSX refused, citing security issues and concerns that could be a cumbersome task.
WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins reported Baltimore City fire officials believe advanced notice of hazmats would have been helpful when, in July 2001, four train cars carrying hazardous and flammable chemicals derailed inside the Howard Street tunnel.
City and CSX officials have since implemented federally-mandated safety recommendations.
But the 11 News I-Team has learned that many CSX conductors continue to have reservations about traveling through the tunnel.
United Transportation Union officials confirmed that workers have filed complaints daily using a form called a PI-82, which is passed on to CSX. The complaints have included concerns over water leaks, communication blackouts and a lack of an escape route if trouble develops, Collins reported.
“Everyone is reluctant to go through the tunnel,” said a railroad employee, whose identity the 11 News I-Team agreed to conceal.
The employee cited an ongoing water leak reportedly coming from the same area where a water main broke above the 2001 derailment.
“It makes you nervous about rails and spikes coming loose and the potential for something else to happen,” the employee said.
In 2001, the derailment revealed serious communication problems — such issues the rail employee contends still exist.
“The conductor has to get above ground; his handset is pretty bad in the tunnel,” the employee said.
According to the employee, conductors cannot refuse to travel through the tunnel if they want to keep their job.
“You are refusing duties; you can get into trouble. Everyone is reluctant to go through the tunnel,” the employee said.
CSX officials said they have not received these complaints, nor have such complaints arisen at safety meetings attended by CSX management.
Collins said CSX further maintains that the tunnel conditions are safe and that inspectors traverse the tunnel twice a week.