Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw was one of 13 chief executives of leading North American companies to answer the single-most critical question for Railway Age’s April 2023 issue: What is the biggest challenge facing the North American rail industry? His commentary is below.

After the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Norfolk Southern promised to make it right. For the people in that close-knit village and nearby towns, that means cleaning the site safely and thoroughly; testing the air, water and soil; helping families whose lives were disrupted; and investing in the community for the long-term.

Part of making it right also means enhancing safety as a company and as an industry. Norfolk Southern may own the track in East Palestine, but the responsibility of making the rail industry safer is something we must all own. 

I’ll be the first to praise rail as the safest, most effective way to move freight, a view I share with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who recently said: “Despite recent accidents, I want to be clear that rail remains one of the safest means of transportation. For transport of some classes and quantities of hazardous materials, there is no safer alternative.” She’s right, of course, but ‘no safer alternative’ doesn’t mean we’re satisfied. 

We need to work together to build on our industry’s strong safety record. An industry-wide comprehensive approach is essential, including railcar owners, car manufacturers, leasing companies, equipment manufacturers and the railroad companies. We can make rail even safer, but it’s going to take all of us, making changes inside our organizations and cooperating to enact meaningful, fact-based change for the industry.

For our own part, we’ve taken several steps in the right direction. In addition to joining the Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS), which builds upon our own long-standing Close Call Experience Program, we’ve implemented a plan enhancing the safety of our operations. That plan involves strengthening our early-warning systems and our technology to identify issues before they become problems.

Beyond working together as an industry, we also need to work with lawmakers proposing rail safety legislation. We support legislative efforts that will improve outcomes for our industry, our customers and the communities we serve.

We also believe there’s a significant opportunity to better support first responders. Norfolk Southern recently expanded its existing training programs with the creation of a new regional training center to serve first responders in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. People from all three states rushed to the derailment site on Feb. 3, and I’m profoundly grateful for their help that day. We’re expanding first responder training in other ways too, including our Operation Awareness & Response program, which travels our 22-state network, training approximately 5,000 first responders each year to safely respond to rail incidents. We are committed to improving safety, which means the men and women who support us need our support in return.

The same goes for our people. I am proud to represent more than 19,700 Norfolk Southern employees who work every day to offer a safe and effective means of transporting freight. Part of showing my gratitude for their hard work and dedication means fostering a culture of trust, collaboration and transparency. We want our people to be engaged, speak up, and be part of the solution. Rising to this challenge, a challenge we all face, means working together to think about safety first—safety always.