Pete Buttigieg’s Transportation Department Is Skirting Safety Standards
The recent train derailment in Ohio shows the need for more stringent safety rules for train brakes, especially for trains carrying hazardous materials. Transportation regulators are instead bending to the interests of rail industry lobbyists.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during President Joe Biden’s remarks to highlight funding for the Hudson River Tunnel project at West Side Yard gate, New York, United States, January 31, 2023. (Lev Radin / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images)
In the aftermath of a fiery Ohio train derailment, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s department has no plans to reinstate an Obama-era rail safety rule aimed at expanding the use of better braking technology, even though a former federal safety official recently warned Congress that without the better brakes, “there will be more derailments [and] more releases of hazardous materials.”
Instead, transportation regulators have been considering a rail industry–backed proposal that could weaken existing brake safety rules.
Most of the nation’s freight trains — including the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Ohio — continue to rely on a Civil War–era braking system. Norfolk Southern belongs to a lobby group that successfully pressed President Donald Trump to repeal a 2015 rule requiring newer, safer electronic braking systems in some trains transporting hazardous materials, we reported this week.
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