Norfolk Southern has announced that it's partnering up with the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen in an effort to enhance signal safety on America's railways.

The partnership, which will be called the Signal Safety Collaboration, was developed with input from the Federal Railroad Administration and aims to establish collaborative processes for identifying best practices to improve signal safety on railways. 

The SSC will use joint inspection, information sharing, and training to make that possible.

"We are united by our shared commitment to the wellbeing of our people and will build on this partnership to help make Norfolk Southern the gold standard for safety in the rail industry," Norfolk Southern said in a letter to the BRS.

The first phase of the SSC's rollout will include field visits, team-building sessions, and working meeting which look to gather input from signalmen and their supervisors. The goal is in open and honest exchange of information with the goal of improving safety.

In an effort to encourage workers to speak up about safety concerns, Norfolk Southern says that no signalmen participating in the feedback sessions will face adverse impacts to their careers based on input they provide to the SSC.

The SSC will also endeavor to create a list of legislative remedies to systemic railway safety issues, aided in those efforts by the FRA, who will serve as a technical advisor to the collaboration.

The SSC is a pilot program, and is currently slated to last for one year. Norfolk Southern and the BRS will provide quarterly reviews on safety and issue timely updates of the program's work.