Members of Congress meet, urge leaders to pass railway safety act
Exactly three years after the East Palestine train derailment in February of 2023, members of Congress met in Washington, D.C., to urge leaders to pass the proposed Railway Safety Act & Common Sense Rail Safety Measures legislation.
Those present during the Tuesday press conference included:
- Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17), House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Member, Rail Subcommittee Member and Sponsor of the Railway Safety Act
- Congressman Mike Rulli (R-OH-6), Co-lead of the Railway Safety Act
- Congressman Nick LaLota (R-NY-1), Co-lead of the Railway Safety Act
- Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-3), Co-lead of the Railway Safety Act
- Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV-01), House Transportation & Infrastructure Rail Subcommittee Ranking Member
- Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO (TTD)
- Mike Baldwin, President of the Brotherhood for Railroad Signalmen (BRS)
- Michael A. Lombardo, Mayor of Pittston, Pennsylvania
The bipartisan bill was originally introduced by former senators JD Vance and Sherrod Brown after the derailment in East Palestine and was reintroduced in Congress with bipartisan support.
It aims to address "safety requirements for rail carriers and trains transporting hazardous materials."
Congressman Michael Rulli, who represents Ohio's 6th Congressional District, sat down with Lindsay McCoy ahead of Tuesday's press conference, discussing what the bill would change if passed.
"The biggest thing is that we have to have two-person crews. In preference, I would like to see two engineers and a conductor," said Rulli.
Other measures the bill would address include:
- Increasing the types of hazardous materials subject to enhanced safety protections, with one example given being vinyl chloride, a material involved in the Norfolk Southern derailment in February 2023
- Requiring railroads to use defect detectors in an effort to help prevent derailments
- Preventing railroads from setting unsafe time limits on train car, brake and overall inspections
- Holding railroads accountable for safety violations through increased fines
"Too often, firefighters arrive at train derailments with limited information and limited training, even when those train derailments result in hazardous materials being exposed. First-to crews are expected to make immediate decisions without full situational awareness. The risk of injury and long-term toxic exposure ensues. The Railway Safety Act fixes that," said Edward Kelly, General President of the International Association of Firefighters, during the conference.
Kelly cited protections included under the Railway Safety Act that would alert first responders to the situation they would be heading into, especially in situations where hazardous materials could be present.
Congresswoman Titus shared statistics on hazardous material transportation throughout the United States each year.
"Now, each year - the statistics are staggering - 250,000,000 tons of hazardous materials are shipped by rail. They go right through our communities, right by schools, right by churches, right by neighborhoods. I know, I represent Downtown Las Vegas, and the train tracks go right there to the Union Plaza, so you know what an impact some kind of derailing would have on our economy and on the whole community," said Titus.
Both Congressman Deluzio and Congressman Rulli took to the podium during the conference, noting that the bill has been seeing support from across the political aisle and are hoping that the legislation makes it to the desk of President Donald Trump.
"These are common-sense measures. There's bipartisan support for this bill for good reason. It's something that earned the support of then-candidate Donald Trump and then-President Joe Biden [and] J.D. Vance led with us in the Senate. We [ought to] get this thing passed," said Deluzio.
"These things that Chris [Deluzio] and I are doing aren't for us. They're not even for them. This is for the general public," said Rulli.
Rulli also recalled the day of the 2023 East Palestine train derailment.
"It was like the apocalypse. Every siren within hearing distance was going off," said Rulli.
Since East Palestine, there have been 200 crashes and over 3,100 derailments across the country. Several of these incidents involved hazardous materials.
"The worst thing about rail safety in this country is every single week there’s a derailment. Every single week of the year there’s a derailment. We only heard about East Palestine because of all of these chemicals on it. And the way we handled it was horrific," said Rulli.
Michael Baldwin, President of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, said railroad companies have been avoiding putting safety measures in place.
"Railroads have never voluntarily allowed for more safety measures, and fight every attempt for uniform standards across the board," said Baldwin. "For years, rail workers have been sounding the alarm. We warned of longer trains with fewer crew members. We warned of rushed inspections. We warned about outdated breaking systems. We warned about relentless pressure to move faster, haul more and do it all with less."
Rulli told 21 News during his interview ahead of the Tuesday conference that this initiative has seen some pushback, claiming that most of it has been from corporations.
"It's mostly from corporates. The corporates aren't happy with it, because I think they see a lot of extra costs involved with the safety but after East Palestine - I don't think people realize, every week, if not twice a week, there's a derailment somewhere in the country," said Rulli.
The full interview with U.S. Representative Rulli can be viewed here.
