The agency investigating last year\u2019s 38-car train derailment<\/a> and fire near East Palestine, Ohio<\/a>, has begun teasing out its findings, with the final report coming later in July.<\/p>\n

The National Transportation Safety Board<\/a> found plenty of blame to go around in the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment of a Norfolk Southern<\/a> freight train. For instance, that famous plume of vinyl chloride that forced the temporary evacuation of about 2,000 nearby residents and triggered warnings of environmental devastation? That didn\u2019t have to happen.<\/p>\n

A Norfolk Southern freight train passes through the stretch of track in East Palestine, Ohio on June 12 where on Feb. 3, 2023 a Norfolk Southern train derailed. (Gene J. Puskar\/AP; Sue Ogrocki\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The possibly quite dangerous vinyl chloride in the train\u2019s derailed tank cars \u201cremained in a stabilized environment\u201d and was \u201cunable to undergo polymerization, a potentially dangerous chemical reaction, until those tank cars were deliberately breached with explosives\u201d as part of the on-site responders\u2019 \u201cvent and burn procedure,\u201d the agency\u2019s findings state.<\/p>\n

Moreover, \u201cOn-scene temperature trends did not indicate that a polymerization reaction was occurring and postaccident examinations confirmed this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NTSB\u2019s findings point one finger at the Ohio firefighters for allowing this and a fatter finger at the railroad company. The local, mostly volunteer firefighters lacked proper training, and the electronic communications were a mess, the agency found.<\/p>\n

As for Norfolk Southern, the company is faulted for dribbling out information, giving bad information, and not passing on information that could have kept the derailment from becoming a made-for-TV disaster.<\/p>\n

NTSB agency head Jennifer Homendy slammed the railroad in a field presentation in East Palestine on June 25, claiming that Norfolk Southern had tried to undermine her agency during the investigation.<\/p>\n

This spooked some investors. The company\u2019s stock fell from $228.16 the day before the presentation to a low of $208.43 the day of.<\/p>\n

The Association of American Railroads is taking a cooperative and conciliatory approach toward the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cRailroads implemented substantial, industrywide improvements in response to the NTSB\u2019s initial findings,\u201d said Michael Rush, senior vice president of AAR Safety and Operations, in a statement. \u201cWith the final report, railroads will carefully evaluate key learnings and determine next steps to meaningfully advance safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AAR pledged to work with the agency \u201cto aggressively phase out DOT-111 tank cars,\u201d which are the weaker cars that allowed the initial fires in East Palestine, \u201cfrom hazmat service,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n

Congressional showdown coming?<\/h2>\n
Whether the railroads will be so conciliatory to proposed congressional fixes is another matter. Based on the findings and recommendations already spooled out, the final report may give them some fodder to push back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe probable cause finding was unsurprising, a failed bearing that overheated,\u201d Marc Scribner, transportation policy analyst<\/a> for the Reason Foundation, told the Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cThe NTSB found that more research is needed on the performance of hot bearing wayside detectors and their use in order to determine whether any changes \u2018would produce a significant safety improvement.\u2019 This necessitates thorough technical, risk, and cost-benefit analyses before proceeding to a potential regulatory response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn contrast, the stalled Railway Safety Act blindly imposes an arbitrary 15-mile spacing mandate for wayside detectors without requiring any analysis,\u201d Scribner added.<\/p>\n
He called on lawmakers to \u201cheed the call of NTSB\u2019s experts that any new regulation be justified by careful analysis of the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other political matters will include whether or not Congress will mandate a minimum crew of two railroad workers per train and how much additional power the body wants to hand to the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, to regulate rail.<\/p>\n
Many Republicans argue that the crew was a nonissue in East Palestine and that the crew requirement is simply a handout to railroad unions. Some have signaled distrust of Buttigieg as well.<\/p>\n
Those concerns have managed to hang the Railway Safety Act up in the Senate, in which support is short of a filibuster-proof majority. Yet\u00a0this is an election year when the phrase \u201cdo something!\u201d tends to take on new\u00a0urgency.<\/p>\n
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To that end, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), who chairs the House Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, sent up a trial balloon. Nehls plans to introduce a somewhat union-friendly railroad bill, but not before he reads the final report, he told Politico<\/em>.<\/p>\n[[The Washington Examiner <\/em>sent several questions to his office about Nehls\u2019s reaction to the NTSB findings, as well as his legislation, but did not hear back by press time.]\n

Congressional showdown coming?<\/h2>\nWhether the railroads will be so conciliatory to proposed congressional fixes is another matter. Based on the findings and recommendations already spooled out, the final report may give them some fodder to push back.<\/p>\n