By first world standards, the American rail system, like much of our other infrastructure, is totally antiquated. That makes it inherently dangerous.
Why you ask? There are two main reasons. FIRST, the railroad industry is making big profits from their obsolete systems thank you very much, and has no incentive too improve anything that might diminish those profits. Cleaning up derailments is a cost of doing business and its far cheaper than upgrading the system. SECOND, and here is the main point that is being missed, the Obama regulation that Trump abandoned was so tiny as to be almost meaningless. Its main purpose was an attempt to keep Bakken oil unit trains (100 to 120 cars all carrying that single cargo) from burning down another town such as the 2013 disaster in Lac Megantic, Quebec which killed 47 people. It would have had no effect on other trains. That rule mandated improved braking systems in one class of train while leaving the vast majority of obsolescent trains unaffected.
The entire rail system is obsolescent from top to bottom.
- Many rail beds are in poor repair from being pounded by ever heavier trains (the same is true for interstate highways). Weakened road beds force reduced speeds and cause trains to shimmy and rock unnecessarily making derails more likely.
- We are still using creosoted wood ties, an environmental nightmare in themselves, which have to be replaced periodically. As those ties deteriorate trains again become less safe. The rest of the first world systems went to concrete ties years ago.
- Significant parts of traffic control systems are also obsolete. The vast majority of our rail lines are single track which puts an especially high demand on control systems. Most first class systems are double track. Double track lines can carry more freight, more efficiently, with greater safety.
- A large percentage of rail cars are old and obsolescent. Many should be replaced a.s.a.p. A contributing factor to many of the destructive Bakken oil fires was that the tank cars were of single walled construction. At least for those specific cargoes, those old tankers have been replaced by double walled tankers that are much less prone to rupture. As far as I could tell, all of the hazardous chemical tankers involved in the Ohio derail were single walled. Improved braking on a few unit trains is meaningless until every car on every train is upgraded or replaced with new cars incorporating the newer systems.
- Finally, in the interest of maximizing profits, many of the railroads have eliminated employees that were tasked with watching for hazardous situations and preventing accidents before they happen. Companies have not built enough automated sensors to replace those employees.
- Oh, and BTW, maybe we could create a passenger rail system efficient and fast enough (not to mention more comfortable), to compete with air travel. All of these changes could help to reduce our carbon footprint.
I have tried to point out how large the problems of railroad safety are. As I have said, there are no real incentives for the railroads to change. A few tweaks to regulations, no matter how well intended, are not going to cure the problems. Too bad we don’t have a Congress that is interested in governing. Congress could mandate that all of these safety problems must be comprehensively addressed. The problems really are more extensive than what the industry can address on its own.
A massive Railroad Investment Infrastructure bill, spent over decades, budgeting funds for everything from right-of-way acquisition, total rebuilt of the old lines, replacement of obsolescent equipment, especially the electrification of the entire fleet of locomotives to replace dirty diesel units, and hiring of more personnel, would be required to do the job. Not only would that bill be a creator of a vast number of new jobs, it would be and investment in the future of the country in an ever more competitive world.