(The following story by Cosby Woodruff appeared on the Montgomery Advertiser website on June 3.)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — During the past 10 years railroad accidents in Alabama have more than doubled.
Federal Railroad Administration statistics show track issues were to blame for a large percentage of the accidents between 1997 and 2006.
With the state expecting another surge in rail traffic in coming years, FRA spokesman Warren Flatau admits it will be difficult to keep rail accidents from increasing even more.
The FRA defines a rail accident as a derailment, train collision or a train striking an obstruction on the tracks. Accidents that are rail-highway, involving cars hit while crossing tracks, are counted separately.
“We clearly believe that (increased traffic) is a major contributing factor,” he said. “That doesn’t necessarily indicate some failure on part of railroads to properly construct or maintain track.”
Most rail accidents are relatively minor, occurring without injury and with damage to only railroad property and cargo. Only about a third of train accidents happen on main lines, which are rails used between stops where trains reach their highest speeds.
The remainder happens in train yards or on industrial track, and usually involves fewer rail cars and slower speeds, resulting in less damage.
High-profile accidents, such as the two that occurred in Alabama in May, focus attention on these main-line accidents.
A Meridian and Bigbee train derailed in Myrtlewood on May 2. It was carrying solid rocket boosters for NASA’s space shuttle. Six people were injured in that accident.
On Tuesday a CSX train carrying chemicals derailed near Castleberry and leaked the toxic chemical phenol. There were no reported injuries, but more than 200 residents were evacuated after that derailment.
Trains in both accidents were headed to Montgomery.
Nationally, rail accidents declined from 3,236 in 2005 to 2,834 in 2006, but FRA numbers show an increase in Alabama accidents during the past year. They went from 72 to 75. That is just part of a larger trend in which the state went from 37 accidents in 1997 to more than twice that number last year.
Alabama had 613 train accidents over the 10-year span. Most (73.6 percent) were caused by either human error or track conditions.
Track conditions are blamed for a higher percentage of train accidents now than 10 years ago. In 1997, track conditions were blamed for 11 of 37 accidents in Alabama. By 2006, that number was 39 of 75.
Flatau said the FRA has not established a clear cause for that increase, but he said the numbers suggested several possibilities.
Employee training programs, he said, might be reducing the number of accidents blamed on human error, leaving a higher percentage the result of track conditions.
Also, he pointed out that accidents blamed on track conditions jumped from 22 in 2005 to 39 last year. He said lingering effects of 2005’s hurricanes could have sped track deterioration, leading to a surge in track failures.
Railroads and the FRA inspect track regularly, but the federal agency can’t conduct complete inspections at regular intervals.
“FRA doesn’t inspect every mile of track on an annual basis,” Flatau said.
He explained that railroad tracks are complex engineering projects.
“We look at two things,” he said. “Track structure, which are things like the rails, cross ties and the ballast. The other is track geometry, which are things like curvature.”
He said problems with either track structure or geometry can cause accidents.
CSX safety officials were not available to comment for this story as they were working on clearing and investigating the Castleberry accident. However, spokeswoman Meg Sacks said the company spends heavily on rail upkeep.
CSX’s Web site says the company spends more than $1 billion annually on track improvement and maintenance. It replaces millions of crossties and hundreds of miles of rail annually.
Most of that is routine maintenance, though. It just keeps the line up to FRA standards and generally does not increase a line’s capacity. If a railroad company wants to increase capacity, it usually has to add an extra set of track or at least passing sidings.
Sacks said CSX is adding capacity in Alabama, but that extra capacity will mean more trains on the rails and a potential for more accidents.
“Traffic just keeps going up every year,” Flatau said.
Flatau said the FRA is launching programs to aggressively fight any rise in accidents. It covers all areas of railroad operation, but will focus on human-caused and track-caused accidents.
Many of the human-caused accidents result from improperly lined switches. The FRA is going to issue a more stringent rule on the issue later this year.
According to written Congressional testimony from Jo Strang, FRA’s Associate Administrator for Safety, the rule will replace an Emergency order that requires special operation of main track switches in unsignaled territory.
The FRA also launched a close-call pilot program in which near-miss accidents are reported and investigated.
FRA also is testing new technology that examines track geometry and lets the railroad company know which track needs repair.
Still, Strang’s testimony revealed inspection shortcomings. Many types of metal failure, which can lead to rail failure, start inside the rail and can’t be detected by visual inspection.
Again, FRA is trying to get new technology to predict metal failure, but the high-resolution video system is not ready for field use.
Alabama’s most recent train accident, the Castleberry accident, involved hazardous materials, making it one of the rarest but most dangerous types of accidents.
In the 10-year period ending with 2006, Alabama had only 10 train accidents with a hazardous material release.
Just 16 rail cars carrying hazardous materials were involved in these releases, even though 264 such rail cars were damaged or derailed in accidents.
Stronger requirements for cars that carry hazardous materials reduce releases.
Those aren’t the only requirements that differ for such loads.
“There is a whole different set of training requirements for hazardous materials,” Flatau said.
CSX, on its Web site, claims hauling dangerous materials by rail is much safer than hauling it by highway.
According to CSX, only nine of 518,000 cars the company moved carrying hazardous materials in 2004 released any of their contents.