Railroads: Moving America Safely

Association of American Railroads October 2018

Summary
Freight railroading is a safe industry now, but railroads are always looking for ways to make
tomorrow safer than today. The rail industry’s commitment to safety is reflected in safety
statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Based on the three most common
safety measures used by the FRA — train accident rates, employee injury rates, and grade
crossing collision rates — recent years have been the safest in rail history. Railroads are proud
of their safety improvements, but they know the safety challenge never ends. Working
together with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and with officials at the FRA and
elsewhere in government, railroads are constantly developing and implementing new
technologies and operating practices to further improve rail safety.

Railroads Are A Safe Way to Move Freight

• Nothing is more important to railroads than safety, and the industry’s commitment to
safety is reflected in safety statistics from the FRA. The train accident rate in 2017
was down 41 percent from 2000; the employee injury rate in 2017 was down 43 percent
from 2000; and the grade crossing collision rate in 2017 was down 38 percent from 2000.
By all of these measures, recent years have been the safest in rail history. The rate
of accidents caused by defective track was the lowest ever in 2017.
• America’s railroads today have lower employee injury rates than most other major
industries, including trucking, airlines, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and
construction —even lower than food stores.

Rail Accident & Injury Rates Have Plunged RRs Are Safer Than Most Other Industries
12 (injuries per 200,000 employee-hours)
11 5.5
Air
10 RR Employee Injuries* 5.0 Transp.
9 1980-2017:  83% 4.5 Food & bev.
1990-2017:  74% Trucking
8 4.0 stores
2000-2017:  43% Agric.
7 Manuf.
3.5
6 Inland All
3.0 water private
5 freight industry
2.5 transp.
4 Constr.
3 Train Accidents** 2.0
Mining
RRs
2 1980-2017:  79% 1.5
1990-2017:  48%
1 2000-2017:  41% 1.0
0 0.5
'80 '85 '89 '93 '97 '01 '05 '09 '13 '17
0.0
*Per 100 employee equivalents. **Per million train-miles.
2017 is preliminary Source: FRA Data are for 2016. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Working to Ensure Rail Safety Continues to Improve
Railroads devote enormous resources to a multi-pronged strategy aimed at further
improving rail safety:
Rail Spending on Infrastructure &
• In recent years, America’s freight railroads Equipment* vs. Train Accident Rate**
have been pouring record amounts back into (2008 = 100)
160
their infrastructure and equipment,
improving safety as they’ve done so. 140
RR spending*
• Railroads are constantly employing new tech- 120
nologies to improve safety, such as sophis-
100
ticated detectors along tracks that identify
defects on passing rail cars; specialized 80
vehicles that detect defects in tracks and the 60 Train accident rate**
ground underneath tracks; and advanced
information technology systems that combine 40
'08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17
data from a variety of sources to produce
*Capital spending + maintenance expenses on infrastructure and
“vehicle condition reports” on individual rail equip. **Train accidents per million train-miles. Source: AAR, FRA
cars so that poorly performing cars can be
identified and repaired before accidents occur. Many of these advancements are
developed at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. in Pueblo, Colorado, a
subsidiary of the AAR that’s widely considered the best rail research facility in the world.
• Virtually every aspect of rail operations is subject to FRA oversight. For example,
stringent FRA regulations cover track and equipment inspections, employee certification,
operating speeds, and signaling systems. FRA safety inspectors travel the country
evaluating rail facilities and operations. In many states, FRA inspectors are supplemented
by state inspectors. Railroads are also subject to safety oversight by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Improving Safety at Grade Crossings and on Railroad Property

Collisions at grade crossings, along with incidents involving trespassers on railroad rights-
of-way, are critical safety problems. They typically account for well over 90 percent of rail-related
fatalities. Although these incidents usually arise from factors that are largely outside of railroad
control, railroads are committed to reducing their frequency.
• Grade crossing collisions in 2017 were down 39 percent from 2000; grade crossing
injuries in 2017 were down 32 percent from 2000; and grade crossing fatalities in 2017
were down 36 percent from 2000. The grade crossing collision rate has fallen most years
since 1980; from 2000 through 2017, it fell 38 percent.
• These huge improvements are due in part to the federal Section 130 program, which
allocates more than $230 million per year to states for grade crossing improvements, and
to the work of Operation Lifesaver, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving
public awareness about safe behavior around grade crossings and on railroad property.
• Unfortunately, too many people use railroad property for short cuts, recreation, or other
inappropriate purposes — sometimes with tragic results. Railroads work with Operation

Railroads: Moving America Safely Page 2 of 3

 Lifesaver and others to educate the public that,
The Grade Crossing Collision Rate Has
for their own safety, they should stay off Fallen Most Years Since 1980
railroad property. (collisions per million train-miles)
16
• Railroads themselves spend hundreds of 14
millions of dollars each year on grade 12 1980-2017:  80%
crossing improvements and maintenance. They 1990-2017:  68%
2000-2017:  38%
also work with local authorities to close 10

unneeded or redundant grade crossings. 8

6
Moving Hazardous Materials Safely 4

U.S. railroads transport (depending on the year) 2

approximately 2.3 million carloads of hazardous 0
materials each year, including approximately 70,000 '81 '84 '87 '90 '93 '96 '99 '02 '05 '08 '11 '14 '17

carloads of “toxic inhalation hazard” (TIH) materials. Source: Federal Railroad Administration

Railroads are the safest mode for transporting

hazardous materials.
• In 2017, more than 99.999% of rail hazmat shipments reached their destination without a
release caused by a train accident. Rail hazmat accident rates in 2017 were down
approximately 64 percent from 2000.
• Railroads have long been taking concrete steps to make hazmat transportation safer. Just
a few examples:
✓ Railroads and a number of federal agencies have jointly developed the Rail
Corridor Risk Management System (RCRMS), a sophisticated statistical
routing model designed to aid railroads in analyzing and identifying the overall
safest and most secure rail routes for transporting TIH materials and crude oil.
✓ Around half of all hazardous materials, and nearly all TIH materials, are trans-
ported in tank cars. Tank cars built today are vastly improved over earlier
generations, with higher grade steel, better thermal protection, improved valves
and fittings, often thicker tanks, and other improvements. PHMSA has set
tougher standards for new tank cars used to transport flammable liquids and
ordered that existing tank cars that carry flammable liquids be retrofitted with
enhanced safety features or, if no upgrades are made, phased out. The rail
industry has been calling for tougher tank car standards for years.
✓ Since October 2014, major railroads have had in place a web-based system —
called AskRail — that allows emergency responders to input the identification
number of a particular rail car and immediately determine the commodity
contained in that car, its hazard class, emergency response information associated
with the commodity, and other key information.
✓ All major railroads have teams devoted to emergency response and maintain
networks of hazmat response contractors and environmental consultants, located
throughout their service areas, on call 24/7. Railroads also work closely with state
and local emergency first responders. In fact, each year, railroads train more
than 20,000 emergency responders throughout the country.

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