FRA 11-07
Monday, March 19, 2007
Contact: Steve Kulm or Warren Flatau
Tel.: (202) 493-6024
Federal Railroad Administrator Boardman Visits Albany to Launch Track Inspection
Project for New York State, Announces Additional Measures to Improve Rail Safety
In the wake of several recent accidents, the federal government today is
launching a rail inspection project to check nearly 1,300 miles of track across
New York State for flaws that might lead to a train derailment among other new
measures designed to improve rail safety in the wake of several recent
accidents, Joseph H. Boardman, the Administrator of the Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA) announced during a visit to Albany.
“A safe railroad begins with safe track, but it doesn’t end there,”
Administrator Boardman said. “Railroads needs to embrace a ‘culture of safety’
and find new ways to prevent the kind of accidents that have disrupted lives and
commerce and shaken our confidence in the safety of tracks,” he stated before
climbing aboard a federal track inspection vehicle called the T-16 to observe an
inspection of track from Albany to Schenectady.
Boardman explained that during the next two days the T-16 will inspect the
heavily used CSX tracks from Albany to Buffalo, including the lines to Niagara
Falls and to Ripley at the Pennsylvania border. The itinerary will take the T-16
through Oneida, Rochester, and Cheektowaga where major derailments have occurred
in recent days and months. The inspection will measure whether the two track
rails are level and if the width between the rails is acceptable to avoid
derailments.
The Administrator added that last month he directed another federal track
inspection vehicle, known as the T-18, be used on CSX tracks in New York. The
T-18 will inspect for weaknesses in the track structure such as bad crossties or
poor connections between the rail and crosstie that could cause the rails to
dangerously widen when a train rolls over that section of track.
And, in order to build a baseline for evaluating a railroad’s ‘culture of
safety’, the FRA will begin a quality assessment of the CSX rail inspection
program, starting in New York and then extending it to their entire network.
Boardman said he is interested in learning what criteria CSX uses to determine
how frequently the company inspects its own tracks beyond current federal
requirements, if track improvement decisions are made differently when a line
has hazardous material or passenger rail traffic, and how track problems are
identified and resolved including the use of technology to find flaws. The
results of this risk reduction approach will be used to guide similar FRA
evaluations of other railroads, he added.
Boardman also said that he met with CSX senior executives to discuss the
railroad's recent safety record and the results of a focused inspection on CSX
property conducted in January. In addition, FRA is performing a safety review of
railroad bridges in western New York.
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