Norfolk Southern CEO back in hot seat during Senate rail safety hearing

Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw was in the hot seat once again facing criticism from U.S. Senators and even an East Palestine resident during a special Senate hearing on rail safety.

U.S. Senator, Maria Cantwell convened a full committee hearing dedicated to improving rail safety in response to the derailment following the Senate's normal executive session.

During the hearing, Senator Ted Cruz criticized the Biden administration for its "delayed and diminished response" to the derailment, along with U.S. Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg for blaming brake regulations being cut by Former President Trump for the derailment.

Senator Eric Schmitt echoed these criticisms later in the hearing.

Cruz and Schmitt both cited fact-checkers for the Washington Post, who stated that the derailment would have happened regardless of whether or not Trump cut the brake regulations.

Ohio-based Senator, Sherrod Brown criticized Norfolk Southern and other rail companies for talking about rail safety citing statistics regarding 99.9% of HAZMAT shipments reaching their destinations without releasing toxic waste and rejecting new safety regulations.

"Here's a statistic you won't hear: Taking out grade crossings, the accident and incident rate for Class One railroads, not including short lines is higher in each of the past four years than any year since 2008. A decade of progress has been wiped out," Senator Brown said.

Senator Brown says trains have gotten "longer, heavier and more dangerous" stating that the train that derailed in East Palestine was 149 cars long and the train that derailed in Springfield, Ohio weeks later was over 200 cars long.

"Norfolk Southern followed the Wall Street business model," Brown said. "Boost profits and it's stock price by eliminating over the last decade 38% of its workforce. These profits were spent on stock buybacks that benefit executives instead of investing in workers and investigating in safe buy."

Ohio-based Senator J.D. Vance criticized fellow Republicans who are criticizing the legislation and addressed these criticisms. Namely that the legislation allegedly has "nothing to do with East Palestine."

"Well, that is an interesting observation and it's something that I'd love them to go to East Palestine and say themselves. Say it to the firefighters who went into a chemical fire without proper HAZMAT protection because they didn't know what was on the train. That legislation fixes this problem as it should," Senator Vance said.

"I would love to see a commitment from Mr. Shaw to defend and support the Rail Safety Bill," Vance said. "It would be good for the people and for Norfolk Southern as well."

In addition, Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine joined the hearing remotely from East Palestine High School. During the hearing, Governor DeWine reiterated the concerns of East Palestine residents such as property values, air, water and soil quality and whether or not life would truly return to the way it was before.

DeWine expressed his support for the legislation and called on Norfolk Southern to take full responsibility for the derailment and ensure that life for East Palestine residents returns back to the way it was before the derailment.

"This has been a traumatic experience for the community," DeWine said. "While the air and water results show this is safe, fear remains."

The governor also announced that the health clinic recently opened in East Palestine will be a long-term permanent clinic where anyone can walk in and get examined as needed.

DeWine says he will ensure that people can still go and get examined even after five to 10 years after the derailment.

East Palestine resident, Misti Allison expressed great concern about the future of her village and shared the struggles that she and her family have been going through since the derailment.

"The anxiety is real. My seven-year-old has asked me if he is going to die from living in his own home. What do I tell him," Allison said.

"This preventable accident has put a scarlet letter on our town. People don't want to come here. Businesses are struggling. Our home values are plummeting. Even if we wanted to leave, we couldn't. Who would buy our homes," Allison continued.

Allison told Senator Cruz that there has been some response, but Norfolk Southern has "a lot of room for improvement" in terms of their response to the derailment.

"What I saw time and time again was people were saying essentially they feel like Norfolk Southern is just offering bread crumbs throughout the community with funding," Allison said.

Allison went on to say while Norfolk Southern has given residents living at home the opportunity to evacuate for the time being, there aren't clear guidelines of what will and won't be paid for.

"When people go to the assistance center, some people are having a good experience, and then some people are really being questioned, like 'why do you feel like you should leave' and 'why do you feel like you need this money from us' and really feeling interrogated. That's really concerning," Allison said.

NTSB Chair, Jennifer Homendy reiterated her point that this derailment was "100% preventable" and that the NTSB is looking into every factor of the derailment to determine what can be improved upon in the future.

Homendy offered the following five issues for consideration:

- The definition of high-hazard flammable train should be expanded to a broader array of HAZMAT.

- DOT 111 should be phased out of all HAZMAT service, as they aren't as protected as DOT 117 tank cars.

- People deserve to know what chemicals are moving through their communities and how to stay safe in an emergency, including first responders.

- Audio and video recorders in the locomotive cab are essential to help determine the cause of an accident and proactively improve safety policies and practices.

- Consider resources needed to carry out NTSB's critical safety mission.

Western Reserve Joint Fire District Chief, David "Chip" Comstock also made an appearance to discuss necessary training for local volunteer firefighters to respond to hazardous accidents such as this one.

Chief Comstock cites the NFPA's needs assessment of the U.S. Fire Service, which states that just 55% of firefighters are certified at a HAZMAT operations level of competence.

"For many firefighters, HAZMAT training is difficult to access. Especially for volunteers who need to take time off from their paying jobs," Chief Comstock said.

Chief Comstock says thanks to a Supplemental Public Sector Training grant, the National Volunteer Fire Council is offering 15 in-person HAZMAT training opportunities across the country for free.

"It is important that the NVFC can provide this programming at no cost to volunteer departments which often lack the tax base to support training," Comstock said.

After testifying before both the Ohio and Pennsylvania Senates, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw is in the hot seat yet again testifying before the U.S. Senate Wednesday morning.

Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw testified before senators once again reiterating that the air and water quality are safe and highlighted what his company has done for the community financially. He said the company had the lowest number of derailments last year out of the past two decades. 

"We are in the planning stages of developing a long-term medical compensation fund, a property value assurance program and a longer-term water testing program," Shaw said. "We look forward to working with stakeholders on the details of these plans."

Senator Amy Klobuchar questioned Shaw regarding an increased number in Norfolk Southern's accident rate, jumping  76% between 2013 and 2022. However, Shaw said the number of Norfolk Southern derailments has decreased recently.

"The number of derailments on Norfolk Southern last year was the lowest in the last two decades. We are committed to getting better," Shaw said.

Shaw says he supports a "number of provisions" in the Rail Safety Act, but did not provide an adequate answer when asked what provisions he didn't support.

When Senator Cruz asked Shaw why he wasn't able to stop the train after the second hot box reading and examine the wheel bearing, Shaw said the second reading was still below Norfolk Southern's alarm threshold which he notes is "one of the lowest in the industry."

However, Senator Cruz says stopping after the second reading would have prevented the derailment.

Senator, Ed Markey discussed potential regulation requiring two crew members to be on the train at all times, which is included in the Rail Safety Act. When asked if he would commit to two-person crews on all trains, Shaw sounded skeptical.

"Senator, we are a data-driven organization and I'm not aware of any data that links crew size with safety," Shaw said.

Senator Markey expressed disappointment with this answer.

"I think the evidence is very clear that these trains can be absolutely safer, but that technology is no replacement for human beings. For example, it can't perform the cognitive functions of a conductor, it can't collect visual cues during an emergency. Two-person crews make our trains safer and I wish you would commit to that today," Markey said.

Senator Vance asked Shaw if he would submit to supporting a mandatory standard for hot bearing detectors, to which Shaw replied he would support this.

"I would support using science and research and whatever is the right number, we would space wayside detectors in that manor," Shaw said.

Shaw went on to say he would also support mandatory first-responder notification requirements as written in the Rail Safety Act.

Senator Gary Peters asked Shaw if Norfolk Southern had any standards for how many miles before a train needs a full mechanical inspection citing data showing that dozens of rail cars are operating on railways that have gone over 5,000 miles without a class one brake inspection.

Senator Peters says this is thousands of miles over what FRA regulations require. Additional data shows over 100 cars that went over 10,000 miles and in one case 90,000 miles without inspection.

Shaw told Senator Peters he is "not aware" of this data.

"I can assure you that our policies are there to promote safety of our train operations, and we do not allow unsafe rail cars to operate," Shaw said.

Senator Schmitt asked whether or not Norfolk Southern's accident rate has doubled in the past decade. Shaw once again said he is "not aware" of accident rates doubling.

This is Shaw's second time testifying before the U.S. Senate.