Cincinnati May Sell One of the US’s Last Publicly Owned Rail Lines to Norfolk Southern
Elected officials in Cincinnati are considering a lucrative deal with rail executives that would sell one of the last publicly owned stretches of rail line in the US to Norfolk Southern, the company behind the disastrous train derailment in Ohio last winter.
Cincinnati is the only city in America to own interstate rail tracks — yet is considering selling one of the country’s last rail lines to Norfolk Southern rail. (Elijah Nouvelage / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Next month, the company behind an Ohio train derailment that triggered a toxic inferno and national scandal could close a lucrative deal: at the urging of elected officials and company executives, the state’s third-largest city could sell railroad giant Norfolk Southern more than three hundred miles of track — one of the last publicly owned stretches of rail line in America.
Earlier this year, on February 3, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, and the company subsequently released a plume of dangerous chemicals over the small town.
The fiery catastrophe spurred calls for a national crackdown on rail monopolies that have slashed their workforces to pad profits and enrich investors, while opposing new safety regulations on trains transporting hazardous materials.
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