Trains keep derailing all over the country, including Thursday in Alabama. What's going on?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

DENVER – Since a fiery Ohio derailment on Feb. 3, trains have derailed in Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma and Nebraska. On Thursday a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama, and another one hit a dump truck on Tuesday in Cleveland, killing a contractor.

Data shows these derailments are not unusual.

Every day, the nation's railroads move millions of tons of raw materials and finished goods around the country on about 140,000 miles of rails, but their safety record is getting new attention amid the ongoing scrutiny of the East Palestine derailment disaster.

Federal data from 2021 and 2022 says an average of about three trains derail in the U.S. a day. While not all derailments are equally as dramatic or dangerous, railroads are required to report any derailment that causes more than $10,700 in damage.

-more-

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trains-keep-derailing-over-country-000805788.html

[Zeitghost]

1. Year in, year out

We have something like 1,400 derailments.

The disaster in Ohio made national headlines and now the media will ride a wave of derailment stories that in the past were ignored on the national level. They will move on when the next disaster of the month happens.

[panader0]

11. I'm pretty sure I heard John Avlon on CNN say 5000 derailments a year in the US!

[Brother Buzz]

14. I hear "about 1000 derailments a year" being bandied about

[Magoo48]

2. Graft and greed?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. What are the conditions of the tracks themselves?

[Ocelot II]

4. Some of the tracks might be in poor shape. I know they are inspected but

I don't know how often or how thoroughly. US infrastructure is generally in poor shape, wouldn't surprise me if that was true also of railroad tracks. Most of the time railroads build and maintain their own tracks but sometimes there are agreements for other railroads to use them. Also, Amtrak uses the same tracks as freight lines. I don't know whether non-owner rail lines have any responsibility for track maintenance - I assume they just pay the owner railroad for the tracks' use.

[gibraltar72]

5. Multiple things are happening.

The rail beds have been allowed to deteriorate. Something I know a little about, the trucks are hundred plus year old technology. I inspected parts for them 50 years ago. They were ancient then. Another thing is trains have gotten longer. I believe the train in New Palestine was nearly two miles long. That strains all systems. The railroads who used to be known for "featherbedding have now cut personnel to a level that is dangerous.

[keep_left]

7. Yes, there was a news report that 15,000' trains...

...aren't that unusual anymore. That's just short of three miles long. The sheer mass of such a thing is mind-boggling.

[The Facts First]

6. "an average of about three trains derail in the U.S. a day"

It's also alarming why we haven't heard about it till the East- Palestine OH case.

[czarjak]

8. Deregulation. Down-Sizing Crews. Maintenance. Infrastructure Improvement.

[Samrob]

9. Are those train cars. wheels, brakes made in the USA? If not where?

[OAITW r.2.0]

10. Time to nationalize the rails.

Force the corps running trains to meet the safety standards that don't put cities and towns and lives at risk. Improve the rail beds for both commercial and passenger use. Implement minimum employees on trains. We do this on our federal highways, should be the same for our railways.

[Hiawatha Pete]

12. If it's anything like Canada, the majority are off-main-track (yard) derailments of less than 10mph

And are the result of a car on the ground in a railroad yard because of things like a misaligned switch or a hard coupling:

https://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/stats/rail/2018/sser-ssro-2018.html

You don't hear about them because they are not catastrophic like the OH derailment.

That said there's always room for improvement and the FRA is tightening guidelines for the wayside hotbox detector thresholds at which a crew shall initiate remedial action in case of a hot bearing. This is in addition to any upcoming NTSB findings/rules:
https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/safety-advisory-2023-01-evaluation-policies-and-procedures-related-use-and-maintenance-hot

I've traveled a quarter million miles on Amtrak & VIA Rail Canada & my wife & I are taking another transcontinental train trip in a few months.

When you consider the half-million truck crashes every year that occur in the US alone, rail travel (which uses the same tracks as freight for the most part) is orders of magnitude safer than road transport:
https://www.impactlaw.com/motor-vehicle-accidents/truck/statistics

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

13. You are correct

It says as much later in the article.

According to federal records, trains derailed 1,164 times last year, and 1,095 times in 2021. That's a significant improvement from past decades. In 1979, for instance, railroads reported 7,482 derailments, and reported 6,442 in 1980.

Today, the majority of those derailments happen in freight yards. Because the cars on yards are frequently being switched between tracks, there's a greater chance of derailing, experts told USA TODAY.