Railway safety expert on freight train derailment in Ayer

Railway safety expert Carl Berkowitz told WBZ-TV train derailments keep happening because the tracks have been neglected.

[neooooo]

“they’re occouring almost daily” well yeah derailments happen a dozen of times a week, its been like that for years

[Oliver]

Where'd they find this " expert"?

[NE-Explorer]

Is this some guy with an HO model railroad in his basement

[rjb]

I would be interested in knowing what makes CBS Boston think this man is an "expert"? I worked in the industry for nearly 40 years, operating trains and as the system safety specialist for Canadian & US operations on a Class 1 Canadian railway. Infrastructure on Class 1 North American railways is not being neglected. Frequent testing is undertaken to determine a host of issues including gauge, broken rails & conditions that may cause broken rails, surface issues (level etc). Some testing is done using track geometry equipment. Berkowitz incorrectly called that equipment "geometric" cars. That by itself is a minor point, but show us that he may not be all that knowledgeable.
Total number of derailments include minor slow speed events. Most statistical derailments are not major wrecks.
The East Palestine wreck was not a hot wheel as Mr. Berkowitz stated, but a hot bearing.
Air brakes have been in use since the end of the 1800s, but modifications over the years have resulted in technology that barely resembles the original equipment. Modern airbrakes are made even more efficient by "distributed power", where locomotives are spread throughout a train. Doing so increases airbrake application & release as well as lessening in train forces.
Human error is typically involved in low speed, low damage derailments, but seldom in major wrecks. In the case of the East Palestine event, a hot bearing was the cause. Currently, there is no way to prevent such failures, but the best bet is to identify them as they start to fail. Some roller bearing failures occur in a few miles, meaning even an increase in number of detectors spaced closer together, will not prevent all derailments, but will lessen derailments because they will catch more in the early stage of failing.

[truckinpoppop]

They’ve happened since the dawn of railroading. We are just hearing about it all the time now since the Ohio disaster. It makes great news stories.

[scottweisel]

As you both pointed out, unlike our roads and highways, rail infrastructure is all private and are not subject to the same safety and inspection standards as our road systems. One big obstacle to rail in the USA, is that it is not supported by taxation like roads. Until that changes, rail will never be as competitive as it needs to to shift freight and passenger travel from trucks and cars. If the rail system was public, with carriers still being private, I think we would see a lot of our dreams for rail become a reality. As long as everything is owned by private companies, the desire for profits will always take precedence over the need for safety and infrastructure improvements.

[FurthermoreJack]

I was listening to a Northfolk southern train the other day and it sounded so smooth and beautiful they are taking care of their cars

[rjb]

At the end of the day, as some here have noted, derailments have always happened & always will. The rate of derailments is far less per ton/mile now that decades ago, thanks to technology. The simple fact is that the higher the train speed, the greater the damage. One option to reduce events involving dangerous goods, is to limit speeds of trains handling such commodities. Wrecks at lower speeds involve less cars & those that do derail are less likely to be breached. Making sure cars undergo visual inspection by qualified mechanical personnel is important. I do think too may railcars are only receiving "pull-by" inspections rather than intensive standing inspections. PSR has increased this scenario because far fewer cars go through train yards now. That might be an areas to re-examine when looking at legislation/regulation.

In this discussion we have to remember that there is always going to be a risk/benefit analysis in any discussion involving train efficiency. I understand that corporate greed results in taking more chances & we have to as a society decide where the regulatory lines have to be drawn. The cost of transporting the goods that we use every day could increase noticeably if we place that "line" in the wrong place. The biggest items to measure in the equation are the protection of life & the environment. Inconvenience to rail companies or the public don't matter nearly as much.

[nickhill]

This is the new media trend.
Remember when the media was covering every jail/prison breakout?
Eventually the media will move into something else.

[johndecareau]

Is this the entire clip? No mention of the fact the train was not moving and parked?

[FNBSRailway]

We've already notice the new stack cars are more beefed up with steel. I think they are too light when put in the middle of a long mixed frieght like that.
I know who ever ran the railroad before the insaneosilem took over always separated stack trains from mixed frieght s.

[s]

he is not an expert if he believes the braking systems on trains used today date to the 1800's, and he failed to talk about how the Railroads have been cutting crews and running longer and longer trains with remote control engines in the middle of the trains. That might work well out west where it is straight and flat, but here in the Midwest and the east curves are tighter, lots of hills and it is just not safe to run 3 mile long trains in the name of

[beverlyweber]

billions are spent on upper management bonuses instead of on rail maintenance, undercarriage maintenance and proper crew levels. also trains are twice as long as they should be for safe operation

[marioxerxescastelancastro]

“Hot wheel” It was a hot _bearing._ This man is no expert.

[MitzpatrickFitzsimmons]

hmmm.. pause @1:29 and tell me that doesn't look like a couple feet have been cleanly sliced and missing from the track.

[Cativera]

This guy may be an expert at model trains but listening to him, he has no real railroad experience.

[dadmezz]

Call BS on training.
Corporate leadership is not listening to the obvious safety reports by their own workers.
Point those fingers in the right direction.

[kdaddy]

DERAILMENTS ARE A MAINTENANCE ISSUE. PERIOD. When rails are not inspected and grinded, ties are not replaced, ballast isn't cleaned or refreshed you get weak points on the rails that eventually fail and that's what causes the derailment. If a rail is cracked or moved several millimeters over time that can have deadly and disastrous consequences. DERAILMENTS ARE A MAINTENANCE ISSUE. PERIOD.

[marcduclos]

The news is looking for a stawman to hang out to dry.

[Toledo]

I think the railroads should bring back steam locomotives!! Life was more simple when they were pulling trains!!