Rep. Chris Deluzio: Derailment rattled region 6 months ago; the fight for accountability, safer freight rail continues

The spotlight on the fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has dimmed over the past six months, but the fight for accountability and safety continues. Massive railroad corporations’ reckless pursuit of power and profit is nothing new. And without badly needed safety reform, it will be just a waiting game until the next disaster.

The people of Western Pennsylvania and Ohio demand change. So do I. Congress has an obligation to protect communities like ours from future derailments. Congress can deliver by passing my bill, the Railway Safety Act.

After the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, many residents had their lives turned upside down. People were hurt, evacuated and scared. Lots of people needed immediate resources and answers.

Since Feb. 3, my team and I have been fighting for people hurt by this derailment. We heard from farmers, small business owners and residents who lost real estate value or simply feared for their health and safety. The recovery is not over. I will keep pushing to hold this railroad accountable for all the pain it caused.

While Norfolk Southern and other massive railroads would like the public to forgive and forget this toxic derailment, that is unacceptable .

The past few decades have seen a decrease in safety and a rise in derailments, yet railroad companies are piling up the profits — prioritizing stock buybacks, dividends and profits over keeping communities safe. In the same amount of time that Norfolk Southern cut over 9,000 jobs, management has more than doubled its profit margins.

Since 2002, Norfolk Southern has slashed its workforce by a third. Inspectors who used to have three minutes to inspect a railcar now have just one minute, and the number of derailments and accidents has skyrocketed. On average, three freight trains derail per day, and Norfolk Southern alone reported over 800 derailments since 2018. Each one risks enormous danger to communities, our land and workers.

This is not a complicated story: Norfolk Southern has bought back billions of its own stock for its shareholders while shortchanging safety. It is time for leaders to hold these massive corporations accountable and to require them to protect our communities.

It is no mystery what we need to do to make freight rail safer. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy called the East Palestine train derailment “100 percent preventable.” The Railway Safety Act is a comprehensive safety package of commonsense solutions to help prevent derailments, like the one in East Palestine or worse, from happening again. And it is bipartisan.

It requires a minimum staffing of at least two people on any freight train, institutes higher fines for accidents, strengthens safety requirements for hazardous substances, increases the frequency of inspections, and requires information-sharing and support for first responders.

Members of both parties in the House and Senate support the Railway Safety Act, as does the Biden administration, former President Donald Trump and many unions. The Senate version of this bill, led by our Pennsylvania Senators alongside their Ohio counterparts, has advanced out of committee with bipartisan support. I hope soon we will see it pass out of the Senate and head to the House.

Yet even with such strong and bipartisan support, big railroads are lobbying hard to stall action on rail safety legislation. The railroads’ concern with the Railway Safety Act is not the impact on communities, but the impact on their bottom line.

This story of corporations lining their pockets at the expense of the public good is not new to our region. When globalization and lousy trade deals killed so many factories and gutted the economy in Western Pennsylvania, we learned what it means when huge and powerful corporations could not care less about the people who toiled to make them rich. They wanted to strip us for parts. Never again. We know a thing or two about standing strong against raw corporate power, and we never shy from a righteous fight.

Western Pennsylvania is crisscrossed by railroad tracks. Where I live in Aspinwall is no exception. Here, train whistles are part of daily life and a reminder of our industrial power, past and present. But for many, the derailment six months ago turned these whistles into dire warnings. What happened in East Palestine could happen anywhere.

Congress must act to change the law to make freight rail safer, even if it cuts into the railroads’ massive profits. The people of Beaver County and East Palestine have already waited for six months — they deserve action. It is time to stand up for safety and pass the Railway Safety Act.

Rep. Chris Deluzio is a Democrat representing Pennsylvania’s 17th congressional district, which includes Beaver County and parts of Allegheny County.