Rail Transportation

Railroad safety has improved significantly during the past 20 years, with both reported accident and injury rates down more than 70 percent from 1976 levels. Railroad industry representatives credit this improvement to better railway plants and equipment. Labor representatives, however, are concerned that heavier loads and increased traffic may adversely affect rail safety in the future. Rail safety data indicate that the progress in reducing accidents has slowed in recent years. Although preliminary data for 1996 show improvements in key safety statistics, about 1,000 people still die each year because of grade-crossing accidents and trespassing, 11,000 railroad employees are injured, and thousands of people are evacuated from their homes when hazardous materials are released during train accidents. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) changed its safety program in 1993 to address safety problems in the rail industry. Rather than relying on detecting violations and imposing civil penalties to obtain compliance with railroad safety regulations, FRA has emphasized cooperative partnerships with other federal agencies, railroad management, labor unions, and the states. These efforts focus on the nation's larger railroads and have resulted in fewer site-specific FRA inspections of the railroad industry overall. Although preliminary data for 1996 show improvements, it is too soon to tell if FRA's new approach will lead to a long-term decline in accidents and fatalities. In addition, FRA has earmarked fewer resources to address concerns about the level of workplace injuries among railroad employees and railroad bridge safety.

GAO noted that: (1) railroad safety has improved significantly over the past 20 years; (2) reported accident and injury rates are down 70 and 74 percent, respectively, from 1976 levels; (3) railroad industry representatives attribute the reductions to improvements made to the railroads' plant and equipment; (4) however, labor representatives expressed concern that, despite this progress, heavier loads and increased traffic may adversely affect rail safety in the future; (5) rail safety data indicate that the progress in reducing accidents has slowed in recent years; (6) while preliminary data for 1996 show improvements in key safety statistics, about 1,000 people die each year as a result of grade-crossing accidents and trespassing, 11,000 railroad employees are injured, and thousands of people are evacuated from their homes as a result of the hazardous materials that are released during train accidents; (7) FRA instituted an important shift in its safety program in 1993 to address safety problems in the rail industry; (8) rather than using violations and civil penalties as the primary means to obtain compliance with railroad safety regulations, FRA has emphasized cooperative partnerships with other federal agencies, railroad management, labor unions, and the states; (9) the partnering efforts generally focus on the nation's larger railroads and have resulted in FRA inspectors' conducting fewer site-specific inspections of the railroad industry overall; (10) while the preliminary data for 1996 show improvements, it is too early to determine if FRA's new approach will sustain a long-term decline in accidents and fatalities; and (11) in addition, FRA has allocated fewer resources to responding to concerns about the level of workplace injuries for railroad employees and railroad bridge safety.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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