The derailment, and several others since February, generated
nationwide concern about railroad safety and prompted
members of Congress to propose a package of reforms. Norfolk Southern’s CEO Alan Shaw was grilled at two different Senate hearings where he apologized for the derailment and promised to make things right in East Palestine.
All the Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent Shaw a letter that was released Thursday morning expressing frustration that his railroad has refused to produce documents they asked for related to the way it uses trackside detectors and some of the operating decisions Norfolk Southern has made in recent years as it slashed its workforce to reduce costs.
The railroad has followed the industry practice to rely more on running fewer, longer trains so it doesn’t need as many crews and locomotives. Rail unions have raised concerns about whether all the cuts have made railroads riskier, while executives have defended their approach.
Norfolk Southern’s lawyers told the congressional committee that the railroad couldn’t release the internal documents because of the ongoing NTSB investigation. Committee Democrats have rejected that explanation and said nothing about the NTSB probe should keep the committee from looking into the matter and the railroad knows that. So far, the railroad has provided only two small batches of documents that appear to be publicly available.
“We are profoundly troubled by Norfolk Southern’s illegitimate efforts to mislead Committee Democrats and use NTSB’s investigation as a shield to impede Congressional oversight,” the 21 Democrats wrote in their letter.
