(The following article by Katherine Yung was posted on the Dallas Morning News website on January 25.)
FORT WORTH — The U.S. government plans to launch a number of initiatives this year aimed at reducing the rate of train accidents, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced Wednesday.
Under one of the programs, federal railroad inspectors will focus their efforts on problem areas instead of merely doing random checks.
The emphasis on rail safety comes little more than a year after the derailment of a 42-car freight train in Graniteville, S.C., that leaked chlorine gas, killing nine people and sickening more than 250.
It was the deadliest train wreck involving hazardous materials in three decades.
Although the total number of rail accidents has been on the decline, the rate of train accidents has risen over the last decade, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. In 2004, there were 4.09 train accidents per million train-miles, up from 3.67 in 1995.
“The incredible economic growth we’re experiencing is leading to greater demand for every type of transportation, particularly railroads,” Mr. Mineta said during a tour of the Network Operations Center at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.’s headquarters in Fort Worth.
“Without this focus [on safety], the human and economic cost can be considerable.”
To reduce the accident rate, the U.S. Department of Transportation unveiled a National Rail Safety Action Plan last May. Besides the targeted inspection program that will begin in March, the plan also involves:
• Publishing a proposed rule in September making it illegal to commit certain safety violations – such as leaving rail cars in a position that obstructs a track – that have become frequent causes of accidents.
• Tripling the amount of track inspected each year by adding two new track inspection vehicles this year. Federal inspectors currently monitor 50,000 of the 220,000 miles of track in the U.S.
• Publishing a final report in August on crew fatigue that’s designed to improve railroads’ crew-scheduling practices.
In addition, the agency has set up several pilot programs that range from collecting data on “close calls,” or incidents that almost caused accidents, to testing imaging technology that can detect cracks in rail joint bars that can lead to derailments.
One of the pilot programs is being run out of BNSF’s operations center.
BNSF and the railroad administration have been testing a switch point monitoring system on 174 miles of track in Oklahoma since last November. The system uses a wireless network to notify dispatchers at BNSF’s operations center when a switch is not properly aligned.
In areas not covered by signal systems, the system could help prevent trains from getting on the wrong track when a switch is not in the correct position. It would cost BNSF $30 million to implement.
So far, the technology has detected 12 instances of misaligned switches, which are the leading cause of train accidents attributed to human error.
“You can prevent accidents with this technology,” said Denny Boll, BNSF’s assistant vice president of signals.