On Tuesday July 23rd, The Subcommittee on Railroads Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, held a hearing entitled: "Examining the State of Rail Safety in the Aftermath of the Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio."  The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the provisions of the recently-introduced legislation - HR 8996 - The Railroad Safety Enhancement Act ("RSEA") that Chairman Troy Nehls (R-TX) introduced with Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA).  The hearing can be viewed HERE.

The witnesses included: Congressman Michael Rulli, Republican from the 6th District of Ohio (the district encompassing East Palestine); Jennifer Homendy, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board; Amit Bose, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration; Tristan Brown, Deputy Administrator, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, US DoT; Jeff Sloan, Senior Director for Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, American Chemistry Council; David Arouca, National Legislative Director, Transportation Communications Union, and; Greg Hynes, National Legislative Director, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Works (SMART-TD).

Most of the witnesses used the hearing as an opportunity to argue that safety advancements in the freight rail industry have slowed over the past ten years with some pointing specifically at Precision Scheduled Railroading as the culprit causing pressure on managers to run the railroad in as lean a mode as possible.  The union representatives recounted stories they had been told of supervisors pressing to employees to decrease reported safety problems and even threatening employees with unrelated discipline over things like wearing their hat incorrectly or stopping to tie their shoe laces.

NTSB Chair Homendy pointed out there were still over 200 safety recommendations they have made over recent years that have not been enacted by the freight railroads.  FRA Administrator Bose also argued that progress on safety practices had also slowed as evidenced by increases in recent incidents and accidents.

The legislation has both similarities and differences from the Railway Safety Act that the Senate Commerce Committee reported out of committee last year.  The Nehls bill requires all class I railroads to enroll in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System for a period of two years.  The Nehls bill does not require periodic railcar inspections as was included in the Senate bill. Nehls pointed out during Tuesday’s hearing that the bill retains the two-person crew requirement, an aspect highlighted when the Teamsters Union announced its support for the bill this evening. A union press release said the legislation “includes several Teamsters priorities, such as requiring a qualified engineer and conductor on most freight trains and providing essential equipment to roadway workers to ensure protections from being struck by trains and other railroad vehicles while working on track.”

HR 8996 would require state DoTs to notify first responders of the existence of the AskRail app, the real-time data application that provides first responders with information about contents carried on a train.  According to the NTSB, first responders in East Palestine had difficulty accessing the AskRail app due to lack of connectivity.  This bill proposes to fund an AskRail connectivity pilot program to fill gaps in service for the app along the national freight network.

Interestingly the bill authorizes $1 billion dollars in additional authorization for the FRA-administered Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program.  Mr. Nehls pointed to statements from NTSB Chair Hommendy about the need to invest in rail crossing elimination in order to reduce the future risks of accidents and resulting derailments at crossings, in particular unmarked crossings.

The bill also authorizes $100 million annually for the Federal Railroad Administration to establish a grant program to install onboard freight railcar telematics systems and gateway devices.  The main focus of the program will be to deploy this new technology first on railcars carrying hazardous materials.  Ultimately this technology will offer shippers with real-time data about the status of the tank cars that they own.  The idea of deploying on-board sensors has been the main argument advanced by CRC against requiring wayside detectors, such as hot box detectors, which are mandated in the Senate bill.

The bill also attempts to accelerate the phase-out date of DoT 111 tank cars that the shipping industry has indicated they believe they can meet.  These cars were identified during the spate of tank car fires when oil was being shipped in large quantities.  The DoT 111 tank car has known shortcomings but there are in excess of 20,000 such cars in service today.  Without some sort of accelerated phase out, it could be upwards of ten years before the last of the cars are eliminated.

Neither the AAR nor the individual Class I railroads elected to appear for the hearing.  Chairman Nehls said he extended invitations to the Class I railroad CEOs, but they elected not to appear.  Ian Jefferies, CEO of the Association of American Railroads, was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he was surprised he was not invited to testify. In a written statement to the subcommittee Jefferies said, “Despite allegations to the contrary, railroads have repeatedly engaged with policymakers to explore how a data-driven approach could improve safety outcomes while mitigating unintended consequences. Any legislative effort that purports to respond to the East Palestine accident must be laser focused on data-driven, performance-based policies that will prevent similar accidents from happening in the future, and the railroads stand ready to work with this committee on developing that response.”

The railroads believe they can stop this bill from advancing, much like they have been able to hold up the Senate's bill.  Nehls has done everything possible to gain the support of the railroads, but there were too many differences, especially on the issue of mandated crew sizes.

Original cosponsors include: Congressman Derrick Van Orden (R-WI-03), Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17), Congressman Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY-04), Congresswoman Emilia Sykes (D-OH-13), Congressman Michael Rulli (R-OH-06), Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury (D-MN-01), and Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY-17).

It is worth noting that Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, does not support advancing this bill, or any other rail safety bill.  Thus this is the reason why the hearing on Tuesday was not a markup of HR 8996.  

Additional cosponsors of the bill include: Congressman Nick LaLota (R-NY-01), Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25), Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV-01), Congressman Jared Moskowitz (D-FL-23), Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Congressman Tim Kennedy (D-NY-26).

Chairman Nehls and Congressman Moulton were able to gain the support of much of rail labor, including: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE), the Brotherhood Of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Transportation Communications Union (TCU), the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), SMART-TD, and SMART-MD.

The Commuter Rail Coalition has issued a statement in support of HR 8996.

John Cline

CRC Director of Government Affairs

Cline Strategic Consulting, LLC

M: 202-550-6555