Stopping Track Tragedies During Rail Safety Week

Each fall, the railroad industry and its many collaborating stakeholders mark Rail Safety Week.

This year’s recognition runs from September 18 to 24, and it serves as a critical opportunity to highlight the progress the industry has made in making railroads safer while also doubling down on opportunities to improve even more.

Rail Safety Week takes on particular importance for the state of Florida.

In 2022, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s data for total casualties, Florida had the third highest rate of casualties due to trespassing and fourth highest rate of collisions in the United States. These accidents leave a lasting mark on the communities they impact. They’re also – through the education and engagement promoted during Rail Safety Week – preventable.

That’s what Rail Safety Week is all about: stopping track tragedies and ensuring we’re doing all we can, as an industry and as members of the community, to make sure our rails are as safe as they can be.

Railroads are vital to our nation’s infrastructure and overall economy. Each year, the industry invests an average of $23 billion into the privately owned network to help support nearly every goods-related industry in our economy.  These investments help to support and strengthen the connections between American industries and global markets, helping to drive job growth here in our country. 

As a safety official at CSX, one of the nation’s largest railroads, I’ve devoted my career to rail safety. I watch the work we do every day to keep communities safe. Our industry can and must do more, but I’m also proud of our commitment and the progress we have made.

CSX, in particular, has extremely high safety standards. We take it seriously and we take pride in what we do.

The passion and training we devote to every single employee allows us to provide the most reliable rail service to our customers while keeping our communities safe above all else.

We’ve steadily increased our investment in core infrastructure over the years, and expect to spend $1.7 billion of our $2.3 billion capital budget on improvements to things like tracks, bridges, and signals in the year ahead. We’ve also deployed updated “hot bearing detectors,” which enable us to remotely monitor rail cars in new ways and keep an even closer eye on key indicators of safety and performance.

Beyond training our own employees, we also work closely with members of the community to ensure they’re ready and able to respond in the rare case of an incident involving hazardous materials. This coordination is hugely important and speaks to our recognition of the fact that rail safety is truly a team effort.

This isn’t a simple matter of sharing some materials or hosting some webinars, either. Our “Responder Incident Training” (RIT) Train travels across CSX’s network teaching first responders how to plan for and respond to emergencies along the tracks. In 2022, 40 different RIT training events were held.

We’re all risk managers at CSX, and we take our job seriously. CSX is committed to the communities we serve and will always prioritize safety. It defines who we are.

Rail Safety Week helps us do more to help the public understand how they can interact more safely with the tracks in their neighborhood. This is a chance for us to create awareness around the risks – including trespassing and crossings – while also building on the progress we’ve made.

By working together, we can help all of the communities we serve make good decisions around tracks and trains to #STOPTrackTragedies.

Sean Douris

Chief of Police, Public Safety and Infrastructure Protection at CSX