Lawmakers, labor and local leaders urge rail safety reforms

Mayors, rail union leaders and federal lawmakers yesterday held a press conference to call on Congress to pass rail safety reform legislation.

The gathering marked the third anniversary of the Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment and subsequent fire in East Palestine, Ohio. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and a bipartisan group of Congress members called for the Railway Safety Act bill to pass through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee or be included in upcoming surface transportation reauthorization legislation.

Deluzio, whose district is just across the Pennsylvania and Ohio border close to where the derailment occurred, introduced the bill last year. At the press conference, he called out big railroads for opposing his "commonsense" rail safety reforms.

"People in my community and our neighbors in Ohio demand action," Deluzio said in a press release. "We have to make rail safer, and that means standing strong against the corporate power that's working against the rest of us who live or work around the tracks. Enough already: let’s pass my bipartisan, commonsense Railway Safety Act.” 

Deluzio serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.

Following a lengthy investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the Feb. 3, 2023, East Palestine derailment occurred because a bearing on a hopper car overheated and caused an axle to separate. The derailed equipment included 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials.

Three of the hazardous-materials tank cars sustained mechanical breaches during the derailment and released flammable or combustible materials; five others released flammable gases as a result of fire exposure or deliberate breaching with explosives to perform a vent-and-burn procedure.