(The following article by Greg Clary was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on January 22.)
HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — Federal rail regulators have been “asleep at the switch when it comes to freight train safety,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer told Haverstraw officials yesterday, near the site where almost one year ago a CSX train derailed in the village.
Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to ask Congress to strengthen the regulatory hand of the Federal Railroad Administration with the following authority:
o To compel companies to haul hazardous materials in rail cars newer than 15 years old.
o To dispense fines in the millions of dollars instead of thousands.
o To require all manual track switches to be computerized and done automatically.
o To double the number of rail inspectors from about 400 to 800.
“The freight railroad industry has gotten away with everything over the years,” Schumer said standing next to CSX Transportation’s tracks at Route 9W and New Main Street, a mile south of the Feb. 19 derailment site.
“The regulation of freight trains both in terms of accidents and, God forbid, in terms of terrorism, is not even close to what is necessary.”
Yesterday was Schumer’s second visit to the location since the CSX train derailed last year and four hopper cars spilled nearly 200 tons of their pebbly silicon metal cargo, a nonhazardous substance.
Schumer said that cleanup was relatively easy compared with a recent derailment in South Carolina, in which a Norfolk Southern train spilled chlorine, a hazardous material, and nine people died.
The New York City area, including Rockland, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, had 2 million tons of hazardous materials travel through it on freight cars last year, Schumer said, and the dense population creates the potential for a very serious accident.
“In a densely populated area like this one, we’d be lucky if we got away with nine deaths,” Schumer said.
Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the FRA, said his agency was aware of Schumer’s concerns and would respond to him directly rather than through the media.
Kulm acknowledged that Schumer’s figure of $11,000 for the top FRA fine for a railroad was a fair approximation.
“Since the FRA has been in existence, roughly 30 years, rail safety has increased tremendously,” Kulm said. “The agency has increased the number of inspectors 12 percent since 2000 and inspections are up 33 percent. The total amount of fines also increased 141 percent, from $4 million to $10 million.”
He said the FRA is set to add 17 safety inspector this year.
CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington said the railroad doesn’t own the cars that are used to carry hazardous materials — they’re owned by the company shipping the product.
“We’re in favor of anything that makes our industry safer,” Covington said.
“We agree that regulating hazardous materials needs to be handled at the federal level.”
Covington said the railroad already abides by FRA rules and would continue to do so regardless of what changes were implemented.