Freight Trains Keep Derailing. Why?

A string of train derailments have captured the attention of lawmakers in Washington. Corporations within the freight industry have redesigned their businesses to maximize efficiency. But a panel of experts gathered by CNBC argue that some of the strategic changes may compromise public safety. Some of these strategic corporate decisions may have been involved in a now infamous February 2023 crash on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, according to regulatory complaints.

Correction on April 24, 2023 at timecode 7:32: This video has been updated to correct details about the industry’s safety sensors.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
01:16 — Derailments
02:36 — Corporate decisions
07:03 — East Palestine
10:45 — Regulations

Produced by: Carlos Waters
Edited by: Dain Evans
Animation: Jason Reginato
Supervising Producer: Lindsey Jacobson
Additional footage: Getty Images, MSNBC, National Transportation Safety Board, NBC News, U.S. Senate
Additional Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Justice, Federal Railroad Administration, National Railway Labor Conference

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Why U.S. Trains Keep Derailing

[kennyronful]

I grew up in a house that was about 300' from a main line. One night 12 cars derailed at our rural rail crossing. The cause was a wheel journal that burned in two due to failed bearings. The SP&S (now BNSF) engineer new there was a hotbox, but wanted to make it to the rail yard 20 miles up the line. The rail company worked 24/7 to get the line repaired enough to reopen it, then jobbed the rest out to a salvage contractor who took months clean up(?) the mess, sort of. After a while the grass grew long and green from all the Ammonium Chloride that dumped out the top of a bottom dump car. Profit is the only thing that matters. It's cheaper to clean up the mess than to replace wheel bearings per a maintenance schedule.

[parkerholden]

A few other things to consider....Longer trains mean more wheel beaings. Bearing vibration analysis is a much better technique to identify bearings that are in the early stages of failure. Bearing vibration analysis is difficult to implement because 1) it is expensive, 2) Transducers must be mounted on the bearing housing and 3) The skills required are rather complex and the training process tends to make the workers uncomfortable. This is not text book theory. I know, I have been there. However it is sucessfully used in a number of Industries.

[windsongwong]

Simple answer.
US free economy is very ruthless and powerful.
It places profit over safety.
It has so much political clout that it can withstand any pressure to fix it.
And that is why USA companies are very successful.
Success comes with a price.

[antoinelee-thomas]

All of the freight railroads have derailments. It's more than just longer trains, employee fatigue, and everything else they mentioned. It's also track maintenance. Maintaining the tracks gets overlooked. They also have to remember that while the tracks are all theirs, they do have Amtrak traveling across and local commuter rails that may also use those same tracks too and they could easily be disrupted too because of freight interference. Amtrak has had derailments too, on freight tracks because the Class 1 freights let the upkeep of track maintenance and repairs go undone for so long until it becomes too late and injuries and fatalities get reported.

The U.S. is just behind on everything. We fall short compared to the rest of the world and this topic here is no exception. We're never going to learn until it becomes a reality that communities and human lives are being wiped out with all the derailments that keep occurring on a regular basis.

I'd rather see shorter freight trains of 100 cars that are only a mile long they won't tie up traffic for no more than 5 minutes rather than a 200 car freight set that is 2 miles long and holding up traffic for 10 minutes and taken the risk of derailing impacting road travelers trying to get to school, work, appointments, run errands, a store, airport, train station, or home. Freight railroads have failed communities for a long time but more so failed their employees and now they're working like zombies and Hebrew slaves all because these corporate folks want that on-time performance and make that top dollar while employees get worked to the brim.

This is not to say Employees shouldn't take responsibility and accountability. They have had numerous opportunities to walk off (as union members) and shut down everything until better safety conditions were met outside of getting paid sick days, but what did they do? They coward out and went back to work anyway instead of keeping their foot planted to the floor instead of saying "no, my family and my overall health physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically is far more important to me vs trying to reach that final destination on-time and until we get our sick days, all freight train movement comes to a halt until further notice and we don't care how much money the corporation loses because we aren't corporate workers, we are frontline workers and living human beings."

[StealthyDead]

At the end, the guy like "we're putting in a THOUSAND more hot box detectors voluntarily" is committing that fallacy of saying the number instead of the proportion. A thousand sounds like a lot until you realize they need a hundred thousand of them, or something of the like. Any time a company or entity quotes the number of something, you should be wondering what proportion increase to the whole that is. Because they deal with larger numbers than everyday people.

[powerhouse]

I LOVE these Docu series, they are so well done and interesting.

[NicksDynasty]

We need more and better rail in the US. I don't want to have to fly and drive everywhere

[mikelarry]

So sad, I have loved trains since elementary school.

[Bassotronics]

Train wheels flanges are essential to help keep the train on the track. But yet they are too small.
1" of wheel lift is all it takes for a wheel to come off the rail; especial on a curve. Make the flanges a bit longer and I guarantee you there will be less derailments.

[ChadSimplicio]

Railroad companies need to do alot more to improve the industry--including adding more railroad workers. Also, let Amtrak add new lines, and fully upgrade their train engines & passenger cars.

[tonyycheng]

Good video. Hit the nail on the head! Hope some good come out of these tragical accidents.

[Stetrain]

Glad to see an update video to this after the previous one had nothing but good things to say about the freight railroad operations.

[willowsloughdx]

They don't. Derailments are on the decline. The media is very interested in showing every derailment that happens in the USA because it is for good their ratings/click counts. Aviation accidents have not increased either, only the media coverage.

[mackpines]

CSX has derailments no matter how good their infrastructure is.
Seriously, it’s crazy how long some of these trains are now.
The tracks are not able to handle such extreme weights from trains that are two sometimes three miles long.
Also, the stupid rules about being able to inspect a freight car in one minute.
How is that possible to find safety defects?

[herzogsbuick]

12:18 I feel very safe knowing that man is working on trains. Look at that technique!

[rocketskids]

Not a single word about the cumulative effects of 40 years of rail deregulation. Not a single word about future government regulations.

[charleswoods]

That was a great video on about train derailments news reports

[AllAboardRailfan.]

Enjoyed the program. The information presented was interesting.

[kronk]

Corporation: "We always put safety first"
Also corporation: "Maintenance staff employment is down 40% in the last decade"

[iamjohnporter]

The higher ups of the railway don't seem to not care about the disasters so much.