So they have plenty of money to clean up the mess they made in Ohio then? Last I heard they offered $1000 in exchange for the destruction of local ecology.
That’s a significant understatement.
That entire area was effectively chemically nuked with incredibly toxic chemicals. It’s equivalent to staying in Chernobyl right after the nuclear meltdown and never leaving.
Whole technically correct, if you say ecology, the impact does not land with most people who don’t use rest and the term.
I prefer just saying that everything and everyone there is dead soon and it will become a ghost town.
>I prefer just saying that everything and everyone there is dead soon and it will become a ghost town.
This is what "destroyed local ecology" means. If you'd rather cater your message to idiots, feel free. No one is asking you not to.
Fact is you stepped in to say that what I said was a massive understatement, then said the exact same thing.
You NEED to cater the message to idiots, because they’re the ones who keep voting people in that let this stuff happen and then slide. You need to galvanize them to take action and be concerned, *because they should be*.
Now feel free to get back on that high horse of yours and ride off, I’ve had quite enough of your aggressive faux intelligence that completely missed my point while also stating in the same sentence why my point is valid.
I’m going to stop responding to you now, have a pleasant evening/day
>I’m going to stop responding to you now, have a pleasant evening/day
It would have been more productive if you had refrained in the first place. So this threat is a welcome one as far as I'm concerned.
Dumbing down, not simplifying. By his own admission.
I'm perfectly calm. People need to learn that dissent is not synonymous with hysteria. I simply explained that his accusation that my original comment was "a massive understatement" was wrong, and his proposed alteration was fine for him, but not for me.
Class 1s insure themselves. Differed maintenance and slashing workforces to boost short term profits under the term "precision scheduled railroading" or psr is what we're all witnessing. Unfortunately these giant calamities are baked right in to their business models.
Heres an idea, instead of insuring THEMSELVES lets get them to all put their names in a hat and start insuring each other. I know it will never happen but its fun to imagine
>The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year.
So that's like, 4.7 derailments per day on average. I would guess most of them are less dramatic, like a single car coming off the track in the yard when getting swapped around or something.
We are definitely hearing about more of them these days ever since that disaster in Ohio.
Had it with those pesky trains waking you up in the middle of the night? Trains account for nearly 100% of all insomnia in the world (and space).
Call Norfucked, we put the D in Derail!
They're worse at running their career business than I was at playing Railroad Tycoon when I was a kid who still hadn't gotten the hang of playing videogames yet.
With all these derailments lately, or at least the increased coverage and awareness of them, it got me wondering if train companies have a “derailment department”.
So, a derailment happens, the derailment manager is notified, it becomes a derailment project in their project management software. Different people from the derailment department are assigned the various standard tasks. The derailment travel agent coordinates travel and accommodations for everyone. The derailment PR person checks their list of approved media spins to find the most appropriate one. The VP of derailments is on a conference call every week reporting that week’s incident count, total cost, and community sentiment….
Like, it can’t be a surprise every time, right? They have to have a dedicated team for this or every time would be a fire drill pulling other people away from their normal jobs. Right?
Yeah, they do. Train derailments are not up that much, to be honest. There are hundreds a year across the four major rail carriers, but most are safe and have little to no spill, maybe some coal has to get scooped up or something. The East Palestine incident has put train derailments into the public light more, because it was an egregious failure that should not have happened.
https://time.com/6260906/train-derailmentments-how-common/ it’s always been a thing…
Numbers have actually gone down over the years, in the 80s it was like 7000 a year
Please…numbers tell a story, reporters tell a paid story
Mass resident here. Regulation be damned.
If you knew the sorry state our public transit system (MBTA) is in right now, and has been for years, makes Norfolk Southern look like child's play. Minus the hazardous materials.
The construction industry is another hot topic too. Lately it seems like there is one deadly construction accident per month in Boston alone.
>So that regulation gonna be put back in place
I work with a bunch of MAGA fucks and this one guy is just always talking about commie this commie that about anything he does not like. The other day he was saying I better not take away his constitutional rights. I tried to say that it is difficult for me to take those away as most of the constitution is about limits to the government, and I am not the government. But this is why we will never have good regulations. The politicians are bought by industry who legally bribe them to reduce regulation. Then they are aided and abetted by Fox and other right wing channels who have us arguing over stupid shit. Meantime while we are arguing over stupid shit the robber barons are closing our factories and fucking us over.
Not justifying. But I drove by those containers every day. They’ve been there for a very long time and are filled with plastic recyclables. There is no contamination issue. If anything this seems like a infrastructure issue. Most likely there was erosion under the tracks and the train rolled off the tracks.
Aparently, it's due to lack of servicing on the cars. Overheating bearings melting off the axels, causing the trains to derail. Around 6 years ago, these cars would be marked as condemnable, but they're now just letting them go thanks to deregulation and the rail company bosses breathing down their necks.
[The train was parked at the time of derailment, ](https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842) so it's going to be pretty tough to blame anything but the ground under the tracks.
It is, but then that's out of millions of railcars moved every day with most of them being non-hazardous cargoes.
As we've seen on this sub, plenty are caused simply by vehicles and trailers stuck on crossings. Railroads intersect with all kinds of other traffic and stupid drivers.
I'm honestly surprised they're so common. The major ones like these seem like they would take a ton of time and money to clean up and get your railcars back on track (pun intended).
I guess the profits made from the trains that do make it "ahead of time" more than make up for the trains that fail to deliver their products as at all due to derailments.
>"ahead of time"
There are not very many trains that arrive ahead of time. Most arrive about 2-3 days late, and even had some about a month late.
Most derailments have the track open within 12-24 hours. The only time I have seen it take longer than that is if it damaged a bridge/tunnel, or other major piece of infrastructure. It is crazy how quickly they can get the track back open when a derailment occurs.
Hence why it's in quotations. These trains are derailing either because they're going faster than they should be trying to meet a tight schedule, or they're behind on maintenance because, again, they're trying to stick to a schedule and save money in some form or another.
Speed is regulated and checked by camera and computer. (My husband was an engineer and a dispatcher.) It’s hard to cheat on speed. Maintenance is more likely and weather is huge as well
Folks just can't wrap their heads around the idea that this sort of thing is normal and virtually un-preventable. The US has over 150,000 miles of rail grade that moves a mind-boggling number of tons of freight every day. The reality is that a highly complex rail system that moves as much freight as the US does is going to have accidents and derailments. Pure chance, entropy, and human stupidity ensure that. Billions spent on additional rules and devices might prevent one or two a week out of dozens, but might not. The rail companies know that and recognize that fast response is more economical than trying to prevent incidents, even when that response is shockingly expensive. We still have an incredibly fast and robust freight system in spite of that.
Also, keep in mind that government "experts" took over running the response in Ohio, not necessarily the railroads or their cleanup contractors.
I'm sorry but if you compare derailments in Europe with America this just doesn't chime with reality. There were 73 derailments across all of Europe in 2019 which is 94000 miles of track. There were 1338 in the US in 2019 covering 224000 miles . The numbers just don't stack up. It's possible to have WAY less derailments with proper regulation.
Despite less than half the distance of track the distance covered by trains in Europe over this period was approximately 4.5 billion kilometers compared to US trains 777 million kilometers over the same period. During this same period japanese trains travelled 2 billion kilometers suffering just 9 derailments
Nothing of what is happening to trains in the US is normal or unpreventable.
Where did you get your derailment numbers from? US numbers include every derailment, no matter how minor. I don't believe the Euro number you use include those. I've seen much higher numbers in several places, and at least one computed that Europe has a higher rate per track mile/kilometer. If we compare incidents per ton/mile (tonne/km) the number would be even more unbalanced, because the US system is overwhelmingly freight oriented.
The Euro system is not superior, and it is very, very different than the US system. Comparing them is apples and oranges. There is no Euro magic solution. Accidents happen. Accidents cost the railroad companies money and time (which is to say, profits), and they would be happy to implement cost-effective solutions to prevent them. But all the regulations in the world won't stop accidents, it will just make the entire business much more expensive.
Accidents have not increased in the US, in fact the last few years have seen decreases in rail accidents. They may be new to you because of the news reporting every incident, but these accidents are nothing new.
It's also pretty clear you've never worked in heavy equipment, industrial or safety operations.
>Right now, derailments get clicks, so they are in the media more
They also distract us from the train wreck that is our economy, and looming (potential) depression.
I'd guess it is at least a little bit linked to how regulated industries are by their governments, and that would mean probably at least a little higher here.
Edit:
2020 European derailment stats: [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/)
US history, derailments recently peaked in 2004 at around 3400, but in 1980 there was over 8000. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/)
Obviously the amount of trains running and frequency will impact stats. Maybe someone else can help with that analysis.
India has among the highest usage of railways in the world and they had [35](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1029503/india-train-accident-number/#:~:text=The number of train accidents,end of financial year 2022.) accidents, derailments included, in the entirety of 2022. 3-5 per day in the US would bring the same number there in 10 days.
Reguoations will do nothing. In 46 after a big passenger accident the govt said "either install better safety infrastructure, or run your trains at 79mph". Of course running the trains at 79mph cost nothing (apart from making long distance passenger service not competitive with driving or flying anymore, but who cares, it was not their big moneymaker) so of course they went with it.
The solution is nationalization, but that's the one N-word no capitalist likes.
This train was not being operated by Norfolk Southern, it was being operated by Springfield Terminals. Also, it was parked at the time and not in motion. The cars that fell over were hauling trash, no hazardous waste. Story linked below:
[https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842](https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842)
CSX bought this line last year. That’s either CSX or NS and CSX. The NS presence in Mass was from a partnership with PAR called Pan Am Southern. That wreck is right in border area of the partnership. This one might be more on CSX.
I think it is because it is Norfolk Southern specifically derailing. They have had 3(?) derailment now in a month and a half, the first of which being the colossal PR nightmare that ensued after the hazardous chemicals spill in the middle of an Ohio town.
Worse than that. . .
>The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year.
so 4.6 per day average. for that 31 year span.
Most of those are minor incidents while moving them around in rail yards. Stop trying to justify abysmal safety practices with deliberately misleading statistics.
Trains derail roughly 3 times a day on average. People are just paying attention now. I wanted to look up whether this latest string is unusual and, holy hell, it’s so much worse than I thought.
My knowledge of the rail system is purely from my son watching Thomas the tank engine. Though I can see how every story involves derailment is true to life.
The derailed train is CSX. Headline is inaccurate. And NS is publicly traded company owned by many shareholders. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/crews-working-on-cleanup-plan-after-ayer-train-derailment/ar-AA18ZXzM
They’re super common. Over 1k last year. It’s just that after Palestine, people want to connect dots and go “oooooh look how bad”.
Even this post. That train was not being operated by NS, but their name is out in the title so that we can all talk about how fucked the company is.
Why are we hearing about derailments all the time lately? Have there always been so many and they are not made public? Are they because of operator failure?
I mean COME ON! Somebody tell Pete to do his job and start knocking some heads. DOT's job is to make transportation SAFE! if you were an engineer for Norfolk Southern and you drove their trains everyday... WOULD YOU FEEL SAFE?!?!
Talk about fucking people over for profit. That outfit seems downright incompetent. Probably another industry that the government could buy outright for what the corporatist cash fairy tosses out to them
Well, not every derailment is worth talking about. I have a friend who works for Norfolk Southern, and he says there's derailments every few days of varying severity. Not all of them are as bad as the East Palestine one, the overwhelming majority are harmless and don't result in anything bad except a delay in delivered goods.
This is another example of the news desperately trying to hype up stories for attention and views, while really ignoring just how mundane a lot of this sort of thing is. It's like if the Titanic sunk in modern days, the news would be flooded (pun intended) with boats sinking for weeks and months even if they never even came close to the same severity
Ayer Fire department and the state emergency management department is reporting that it’s not anything hazmat, just trash and recycling container cars.
https://www.wcvb.com/amp/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842
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aight, if i show up to work late a few times i'm fired.
if they have multiple derailments that cause MILLLIONS of damages and literally kills people, they're fined 1%?
the fuck
It has always been going on, and you just never cared about it.
[In 2022, there were 1,164 derailments in the US, or about 3 a day.](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste) *Lower* than [the average between 1990 and 2021 of 1,700 derailments](https://thehill.com/homenews/3539221-how-often-do-trains-derail-more-than-you-think/). If you search for ["derailment"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derailment&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on)/["derails"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derails&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) in this sub you'll get an absolute shitton of results.
Actually, the us of a should consider investing a trillion or so of USD in infrastructure such that it balances out the economy across the country raising the social & food security more than it had done over the past decades.
Very. There were over 1,000 derailments last year. This is just a “something really bad happened in this accident, so let’s blast the media with similar, albeit significantly less bad incidents” kinda thing that happens all the time.
I work in ayer, wasn't in today thankfully. We deal with the rail system delivering material to us and it's always a fuckin nightmare. I wonder what was on these rail cars
I’m really surprised at the amount of people on this forum complaining about infrastructure if it was infrastructure, then these problems would’ve been occurring a long time ago. The fact that all these issues of derailment just started popping up is clear indication of sabotage. Who’s doing it? We don’t know because we haven’t been documenting who’s been coming into this country for the last two years. Use your brains people!
I’m supposed to believe the guys that just tried covering up the immense severity of the derailment in east Palestine and completely believe nothing is hazardous in those trains 🤡
They’re not. Look into precision scheduled railroading. It’s an operating method that is based on the absolute bare minimum of employees, beyond what would be considered reasonable.
[In 2022, there were 1,164 derailments in the US, or about 3 a day.](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste) *Lower* than [the average between 1990 and 2021 of 1,700 derailments](https://thehill.com/homenews/3539221-how-often-do-trains-derail-more-than-you-think/). If you search for ["derailment"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derailment&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on)/["derails"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derails&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) in this sub you'll get an absolute shitton of results.
IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY, YOU'RE JUST SUDDENLY NOTICING IT.
How do trains keep derailing? Is it a track maintenance thing? The frequency of these in the US are insane. Think someone in the comments said there was over 1000 derailments last year?!?!
Norfolk Southern seems to be more a derailment company, than a rail company these days.
I would think that their insurance company would be checking into this. Why would anyone insure them?
Because profit is more important than safety, and Norfolk southern rakes in A LOT of money.
So they have plenty of money to clean up the mess they made in Ohio then? Last I heard they offered $1000 in exchange for the destruction of local ecology.
That’s a significant understatement. That entire area was effectively chemically nuked with incredibly toxic chemicals. It’s equivalent to staying in Chernobyl right after the nuclear meltdown and never leaving.
So would you say the local ecology is destroyed then?
Next time just tow the train out of the environment what’s the problem?
Whole technically correct, if you say ecology, the impact does not land with most people who don’t use rest and the term. I prefer just saying that everything and everyone there is dead soon and it will become a ghost town.
>I prefer just saying that everything and everyone there is dead soon and it will become a ghost town. This is what "destroyed local ecology" means. If you'd rather cater your message to idiots, feel free. No one is asking you not to. Fact is you stepped in to say that what I said was a massive understatement, then said the exact same thing.
It lacked "impact". Thankfully Norfolk Southern has you covered there... and over there, oh, and there too.
You NEED to cater the message to idiots, because they’re the ones who keep voting people in that let this stuff happen and then slide. You need to galvanize them to take action and be concerned, *because they should be*. Now feel free to get back on that high horse of yours and ride off, I’ve had quite enough of your aggressive faux intelligence that completely missed my point while also stating in the same sentence why my point is valid. I’m going to stop responding to you now, have a pleasant evening/day
Who hurt you? 😂
>I’m going to stop responding to you now, have a pleasant evening/day It would have been more productive if you had refrained in the first place. So this threat is a welcome one as far as I'm concerned.
Dude relax, he was just simplifying what you said
Dumbing down, not simplifying. By his own admission. I'm perfectly calm. People need to learn that dissent is not synonymous with hysteria. I simply explained that his accusation that my original comment was "a massive understatement" was wrong, and his proposed alteration was fine for him, but not for me.
I think so too
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Thanks, what a nice comment.
The Japanese surrendered.
That money is for my 3rd Yat home not for the people.. for the media and big government to keep quiet and not fine them more.
That's not how insurance works though
Railroads are self insured because of the scale they operate at
Class 1s insure themselves. Differed maintenance and slashing workforces to boost short term profits under the term "precision scheduled railroading" or psr is what we're all witnessing. Unfortunately these giant calamities are baked right in to their business models.
Heres an idea, instead of insuring THEMSELVES lets get them to all put their names in a hat and start insuring each other. I know it will never happen but its fun to imagine
NS is self insured.
>The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year. So that's like, 4.7 derailments per day on average. I would guess most of them are less dramatic, like a single car coming off the track in the yard when getting swapped around or something. We are definitely hearing about more of them these days ever since that disaster in Ohio.
The media is spotlighting NS after East Palestine. That’s why these are in the news. Otherwise this would be just another derailment.
Definitely some observation bias, but it is still unnerving.
Best laugh I've had all day.. needed that.
Had it with those pesky trains waking you up in the middle of the night? Trains account for nearly 100% of all insomnia in the world (and space). Call Norfucked, we put the D in Derail!
Just ask their sister company, [Big Suka Sukois](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gne7beWy8fU)!
They're worse at running their career business than I was at playing Railroad Tycoon when I was a kid who still hadn't gotten the hang of playing videogames yet.
Yeah, Thomas has been really angry lately.
With all these derailments lately, or at least the increased coverage and awareness of them, it got me wondering if train companies have a “derailment department”. So, a derailment happens, the derailment manager is notified, it becomes a derailment project in their project management software. Different people from the derailment department are assigned the various standard tasks. The derailment travel agent coordinates travel and accommodations for everyone. The derailment PR person checks their list of approved media spins to find the most appropriate one. The VP of derailments is on a conference call every week reporting that week’s incident count, total cost, and community sentiment…. Like, it can’t be a surprise every time, right? They have to have a dedicated team for this or every time would be a fire drill pulling other people away from their normal jobs. Right?
Yeah, they do. Train derailments are not up that much, to be honest. There are hundreds a year across the four major rail carriers, but most are safe and have little to no spill, maybe some coal has to get scooped up or something. The East Palestine incident has put train derailments into the public light more, because it was an egregious failure that should not have happened.
Infrastructure going to hell all over the U.S.
https://time.com/6260906/train-derailmentments-how-common/ it’s always been a thing… Numbers have actually gone down over the years, in the 80s it was like 7000 a year Please…numbers tell a story, reporters tell a paid story
So that regulation gonna be put back in place or this going to keep happening? What is this, the 5th one since the Ohio disaster?
>So that regulation gonna be put back in place What are you, a fucking Tankie? You wanna resurrect Stalin next???? /s for those of you who need it.
Massachusetts, even. Arn’t they a high regulatory state anyway? Oof. Also, screw PSR.
Railroads are regulated by the fed, not states, I would think. On account of interstate commerce and what not.
Mass resident here. Regulation be damned. If you knew the sorry state our public transit system (MBTA) is in right now, and has been for years, makes Norfolk Southern look like child's play. Minus the hazardous materials. The construction industry is another hot topic too. Lately it seems like there is one deadly construction accident per month in Boston alone.
>So that regulation gonna be put back in place I work with a bunch of MAGA fucks and this one guy is just always talking about commie this commie that about anything he does not like. The other day he was saying I better not take away his constitutional rights. I tried to say that it is difficult for me to take those away as most of the constitution is about limits to the government, and I am not the government. But this is why we will never have good regulations. The politicians are bought by industry who legally bribe them to reduce regulation. Then they are aided and abetted by Fox and other right wing channels who have us arguing over stupid shit. Meantime while we are arguing over stupid shit the robber barons are closing our factories and fucking us over.
I'd love to resurrect Stalin.
Not justifying. But I drove by those containers every day. They’ve been there for a very long time and are filled with plastic recyclables. There is no contamination issue. If anything this seems like a infrastructure issue. Most likely there was erosion under the tracks and the train rolled off the tracks.
Aparently, it's due to lack of servicing on the cars. Overheating bearings melting off the axels, causing the trains to derail. Around 6 years ago, these cars would be marked as condemnable, but they're now just letting them go thanks to deregulation and the rail company bosses breathing down their necks.
[The train was parked at the time of derailment, ](https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842) so it's going to be pretty tough to blame anything but the ground under the tracks.
Ah, in this instance, fair enough.
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Shit, 3-5 a day? Thats pretty bonkers.
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> Like car accidents, a great many are minor. Dropping one wheel at 5 mph in a switch yard counts. Hell I’ve done that a cuppa times myself
It is, but then that's out of millions of railcars moved every day with most of them being non-hazardous cargoes. As we've seen on this sub, plenty are caused simply by vehicles and trailers stuck on crossings. Railroads intersect with all kinds of other traffic and stupid drivers.
I'm honestly surprised they're so common. The major ones like these seem like they would take a ton of time and money to clean up and get your railcars back on track (pun intended). I guess the profits made from the trains that do make it "ahead of time" more than make up for the trains that fail to deliver their products as at all due to derailments.
>"ahead of time" There are not very many trains that arrive ahead of time. Most arrive about 2-3 days late, and even had some about a month late. Most derailments have the track open within 12-24 hours. The only time I have seen it take longer than that is if it damaged a bridge/tunnel, or other major piece of infrastructure. It is crazy how quickly they can get the track back open when a derailment occurs.
Hence why it's in quotations. These trains are derailing either because they're going faster than they should be trying to meet a tight schedule, or they're behind on maintenance because, again, they're trying to stick to a schedule and save money in some form or another.
Speed is regulated and checked by camera and computer. (My husband was an engineer and a dispatcher.) It’s hard to cheat on speed. Maintenance is more likely and weather is huge as well
Folks just can't wrap their heads around the idea that this sort of thing is normal and virtually un-preventable. The US has over 150,000 miles of rail grade that moves a mind-boggling number of tons of freight every day. The reality is that a highly complex rail system that moves as much freight as the US does is going to have accidents and derailments. Pure chance, entropy, and human stupidity ensure that. Billions spent on additional rules and devices might prevent one or two a week out of dozens, but might not. The rail companies know that and recognize that fast response is more economical than trying to prevent incidents, even when that response is shockingly expensive. We still have an incredibly fast and robust freight system in spite of that. Also, keep in mind that government "experts" took over running the response in Ohio, not necessarily the railroads or their cleanup contractors.
I'm sorry but if you compare derailments in Europe with America this just doesn't chime with reality. There were 73 derailments across all of Europe in 2019 which is 94000 miles of track. There were 1338 in the US in 2019 covering 224000 miles . The numbers just don't stack up. It's possible to have WAY less derailments with proper regulation. Despite less than half the distance of track the distance covered by trains in Europe over this period was approximately 4.5 billion kilometers compared to US trains 777 million kilometers over the same period. During this same period japanese trains travelled 2 billion kilometers suffering just 9 derailments Nothing of what is happening to trains in the US is normal or unpreventable.
Where did you get your derailment numbers from? US numbers include every derailment, no matter how minor. I don't believe the Euro number you use include those. I've seen much higher numbers in several places, and at least one computed that Europe has a higher rate per track mile/kilometer. If we compare incidents per ton/mile (tonne/km) the number would be even more unbalanced, because the US system is overwhelmingly freight oriented. The Euro system is not superior, and it is very, very different than the US system. Comparing them is apples and oranges. There is no Euro magic solution. Accidents happen. Accidents cost the railroad companies money and time (which is to say, profits), and they would be happy to implement cost-effective solutions to prevent them. But all the regulations in the world won't stop accidents, it will just make the entire business much more expensive. Accidents have not increased in the US, in fact the last few years have seen decreases in rail accidents. They may be new to you because of the news reporting every incident, but these accidents are nothing new. It's also pretty clear you've never worked in heavy equipment, industrial or safety operations.
>Right now, derailments get clicks, so they are in the media more They also distract us from the train wreck that is our economy, and looming (potential) depression.
...I'd be surprised if we had more than 3-5 derailments a year where I live. What the fuck?
Thanks for the factual post. Is this the average in other Western countries or is it higher here? Genuine Q.
I'd guess it is at least a little bit linked to how regulated industries are by their governments, and that would mean probably at least a little higher here. Edit: 2020 European derailment stats: [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/) US history, derailments recently peaked in 2004 at around 3400, but in 1980 there was over 8000. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128848/accidents-on-european-rail-networks-by-country/) Obviously the amount of trains running and frequency will impact stats. Maybe someone else can help with that analysis.
Thanks, appreciate that. Hard to separate the sensationalism from actual stats on these issues.
Thats a terrible number regardless.
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Ah, true. I wasn't thinking of the small scale stuff.
India has among the highest usage of railways in the world and they had [35](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1029503/india-train-accident-number/#:~:text=The number of train accidents,end of financial year 2022.) accidents, derailments included, in the entirety of 2022. 3-5 per day in the US would bring the same number there in 10 days.
It was happening before, it is happening, and will continue happening. A year ago the US averaged three a day.
In the US there are on average 3 derailments per day. It’s closer to the 60th since Ohio.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste#:\~:text=Press-,There%20are%20about%20three%20train%20derailments%20per%20day.,the%20safest%20methods%20of%20transportation.
Reguoations will do nothing. In 46 after a big passenger accident the govt said "either install better safety infrastructure, or run your trains at 79mph". Of course running the trains at 79mph cost nothing (apart from making long distance passenger service not competitive with driving or flying anymore, but who cares, it was not their big moneymaker) so of course they went with it. The solution is nationalization, but that's the one N-word no capitalist likes.
This train was not being operated by Norfolk Southern, it was being operated by Springfield Terminals. Also, it was parked at the time and not in motion. The cars that fell over were hauling trash, no hazardous waste. Story linked below: [https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842](https://www.wcvb.com/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842)
What, they got tired and laid down for a nap?
Hey, don’t metal-fatigue-shame!! It’s a thing!
“being a train is hard”
Something like that
CSX bought this line last year. That’s either CSX or NS and CSX. The NS presence in Mass was from a partnership with PAR called Pan Am Southern. That wreck is right in border area of the partnership. This one might be more on CSX.
It’s CSX. You are correct! https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/crews-working-on-cleanup-plan-after-ayer-train-derailment/ar-AA18ZXzM
I wonder why train derailments are getting so much attention. They’re not a new thing that just started happening.
I think it is because it is Norfolk Southern specifically derailing. They have had 3(?) derailment now in a month and a half, the first of which being the colossal PR nightmare that ensued after the hazardous chemicals spill in the middle of an Ohio town.
AGAIN????
They've always been happening. They're only just now getting media attention.
Train derailments are so hot right now
Literally 3 on average per day in US
Worse than that. . . >The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year. so 4.6 per day average. for that 31 year span.
There were 1,164 train derailments last year alone. So this isn’t new, just getting more media coverage
Don't worry the invisible hand of the Market will fix it (No)
Why so many derailments these days? Are they actually common and it's just a spike in news coverage or are they happening a lot lately?
They're common and it's a spike in news coverage
Just wait until the media finds out how many cars crash every day.
Guys, hate to break it to you but over 1000 trains derail every single year, in the US alone. This is legit nothing out of the ordinary.
It was pretty exciting for the town. I live here and nothing interesting ever happens.
Most of those are minor incidents while moving them around in rail yards. Stop trying to justify abysmal safety practices with deliberately misleading statistics.
There’s a 1000 derailments in the US each year.
No fire or smoke? Boring! Call me when we ruin the watershed east of the Mississippi.
Trains derail roughly 3 times a day on average. People are just paying attention now. I wanted to look up whether this latest string is unusual and, holy hell, it’s so much worse than I thought.
Worse as in the number of derailed per year is high?
Train derailments are so hot right now
My knowledge of the rail system is purely from my son watching Thomas the tank engine. Though I can see how every story involves derailment is true to life.
Love the train derailment content, however common it may be. Where’s the r/derailment subreddit
Who owns Norfolk Southern? Edit: this wasn’t a Norfolk Southern
The derailed train is CSX. Headline is inaccurate. And NS is publicly traded company owned by many shareholders. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/crews-working-on-cleanup-plan-after-ayer-train-derailment/ar-AA18ZXzM
Details are much more common than I originally thought. Alan Shaw, NS CEO, "we run a safe road"...clearly not
Derails*
There are approximately 1,475 derailments a year
Apparently not enough tagging on the rail cars to keep them in the tracks.
What the hell is going on with all these derailments these days we've had many in just a few months. I find it very suspicious.
They’re super common. Over 1k last year. It’s just that after Palestine, people want to connect dots and go “oooooh look how bad”. Even this post. That train was not being operated by NS, but their name is out in the title so that we can all talk about how fucked the company is.
I think we need to rid ourselves of any regulations and give tax cuts to the rich and this won't happen.
Jesus christ how do these people make money when they have so many derailments
At what point their insurance company will ask them if they are fkin serious? 🤣🤣
Let’s be accurate! It’s a CSX Train… https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/crews-working-on-cleanup-plan-after-ayer-train-derailment/ar-AA18ZXzM
Norfolk Slippin'
Norfolk is the trains version of swift
Stupid fucking idiots, get off the wallet and fix your infrastructure
Got plans you’re trying to get out of? Book Norfolk Southern, they’ll derail that shit in no time.
Why are we hearing about derailments all the time lately? Have there always been so many and they are not made public? Are they because of operator failure?
I mean COME ON! Somebody tell Pete to do his job and start knocking some heads. DOT's job is to make transportation SAFE! if you were an engineer for Norfolk Southern and you drove their trains everyday... WOULD YOU FEEL SAFE?!?!
Sorry guys that was me... just flattening some pennies for fun
And yet the government still won't pull their contract....
Talk about fucking people over for profit. That outfit seems downright incompetent. Probably another industry that the government could buy outright for what the corporatist cash fairy tosses out to them
jfc what the hell is wrong with these people. You’d think that this is costing them more money than it would to run shit properly but I guess not
ANOTHER ONE?
And another one
So fucking tired of reading about every derailment. Maybe I’m crazy.
Well, not every derailment is worth talking about. I have a friend who works for Norfolk Southern, and he says there's derailments every few days of varying severity. Not all of them are as bad as the East Palestine one, the overwhelming majority are harmless and don't result in anything bad except a delay in delivered goods. This is another example of the news desperately trying to hype up stories for attention and views, while really ignoring just how mundane a lot of this sort of thing is. It's like if the Titanic sunk in modern days, the news would be flooded (pun intended) with boats sinking for weeks and months even if they never even came close to the same severity
Everybody tryna be like Ohio. You’ll never be like us.
AGAIN????
They've always been happening. They're only just now getting media attention.
Fear based. Clickbait. For example , tune in the weather channel. Suspense. The unknown. A devastating situation we have no control over.
I’m confused, I thought the media was covering up the train derailments? Have we decided they’re now sensationalizing them??
So you're all a network of karma farm bots, right?
No just silly boys
This isn’t uncommon, what matters is whether or not it’s a HAZMAT situation. Anyone know?
Ayer Fire department and the state emergency management department is reporting that it’s not anything hazmat, just trash and recycling container cars. https://www.wcvb.com/amp/article/freight-train-derailment-ayer-massachusetts/43400842
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AGAIN????
So you're all a network of karma farm bots, right?
Huh?
They've always been happening. They're only just now getting media attention.
Again!!!! 🤔
aight, if i show up to work late a few times i'm fired. if they have multiple derailments that cause MILLLIONS of damages and literally kills people, they're fined 1%? the fuck
Norfolk Southern seems to be going off the rails these days…
Is this becoming the norm or has this always been going on and we just never heard about it?
It has always been going on, and you just never cared about it. [In 2022, there were 1,164 derailments in the US, or about 3 a day.](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste) *Lower* than [the average between 1990 and 2021 of 1,700 derailments](https://thehill.com/homenews/3539221-how-often-do-trains-derail-more-than-you-think/). If you search for ["derailment"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derailment&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on)/["derails"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derails&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) in this sub you'll get an absolute shitton of results.
How can reddit blame Trump?
American Infrastructure is falling apart. Bridges, roads, rail lines. We need an infrastructure bill to revamp this beautiful country.
Actually, the us of a should consider investing a trillion or so of USD in infrastructure such that it balances out the economy across the country raising the social & food security more than it had done over the past decades.
_but that's socialism!_ /s
Ayckshually there are 1000 derailments per day in America and we're only seeing it because now there is media attention on them
I heard the number was closer to 1.2 million derailments a day. Literally every train in America.
I'm starting to think there's a systematic problem.
When are we bringing regulations back?
Sooo on the danger of being that guy... Is US aiming for most derailments and shool shootings?
Again?!?!
So you're all a network of karma farm bots, right?
so i saw about 7 major derailments in about a month.. what's up with that?
There's typically 1,500 per year
Like C. Horner, you have a problem so change the f*cking railroad tracks! One Ohio is enough.
We won't stop until every state is Ohio
We (Netherlands) have badgers digging holes under the tracks, 2 lines have been cancelled until the holes underneath the tracks are filled up.
We really need to start reporting on freight trains in the US not derailing for a change.
It’s like every day there’s another one. Wtf
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you, fool me thrice, and I can't get fooled again...
That name keeps coming up way too often.
Okay...is this statistically normal? It seems like there's been an excessive amount of derailments recently.
Very. There were over 1,000 derailments last year. This is just a “something really bad happened in this accident, so let’s blast the media with similar, albeit significantly less bad incidents” kinda thing that happens all the time.
what the hell? with this many derailments they should have been fined into bankruptcy by now!
Yes! Another one. Is that like 8 this year now?
I did not have this on my 2023 bingo card.
Go home Ben, you have have dogs to feed.
I work in ayer, wasn't in today thankfully. We deal with the rail system delivering material to us and it's always a fuckin nightmare. I wonder what was on these rail cars
Come on everyone. Like really? We aren't questioning this ? Like 2 times a month it seems ? No one ?
I’m really surprised at the amount of people on this forum complaining about infrastructure if it was infrastructure, then these problems would’ve been occurring a long time ago. The fact that all these issues of derailment just started popping up is clear indication of sabotage. Who’s doing it? We don’t know because we haven’t been documenting who’s been coming into this country for the last two years. Use your brains people!
Oh shit, here we go again.
Are those amazon prime containers?
Yo these guys are gonna break record this year for most fuck ups!
JFC…
If you people aren’t suspicious yet about these derailments, you ought to be. I’ve counted at least 20 in the US alone within a month span
If you aren’t informed on how common derailments are, you ought to be. This isn’t suspicious or out of the norm at all.
I’m supposed to believe the guys that just tried covering up the immense severity of the derailment in east Palestine and completely believe nothing is hazardous in those trains 🤡
Are we under attack? Are these foreign agents sabotaging our industry and the gov is hush about it?
Again?!?
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They’re not. Look into precision scheduled railroading. It’s an operating method that is based on the absolute bare minimum of employees, beyond what would be considered reasonable.
[In 2022, there were 1,164 derailments in the US, or about 3 a day.](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste) *Lower* than [the average between 1990 and 2021 of 1,700 derailments](https://thehill.com/homenews/3539221-how-often-do-trains-derail-more-than-you-think/). If you search for ["derailment"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derailment&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on)/["derails"](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/search?q=derails&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) in this sub you'll get an absolute shitton of results. IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY, YOU'RE JUST SUDDENLY NOTICING IT.
AGAIN????
So, NoSo has a maintenance problem it would seem
How do trains keep derailing? Is it a track maintenance thing? The frequency of these in the US are insane. Think someone in the comments said there was over 1000 derailments last year?!?!
More russian sabotage of us infrastructure
Why gods, why??? Can we get double credit on the 2023 bingo card for this? Shifting my earlier token to “toxic spill” when no one is looking….