Norfolk Southern Railway is the first Class I freight railroad to officially join the Confidential Close Call Reporting System, or C3RS, a program that empowers railroad workers to confidentially report safety issues.
The C3RS program has been proven to improve rail safety for both railroad workers and the public, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
The U.S. Department of Transportation called on all Class I freight railroads to join this reporting program following the 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. While all agreed to join, only Norfolk Southern has officially joined.
Class I freight railroads are railroads that have an operating revenue of $490 million or more, including Union Pacific, CSX Transportation, BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway.
Railroad joined in partnership with 2 unions
Norfolk Southern joined the program in partnership with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division.
Through the agreement, Norfolk Southern employees represented by the two unions in Atlanta, Georgia; Elkhart, Indiana; and Roanoke, Virginia will be able to confidentially report safety issues and unsafe events they experience without fear of discipline by their employer.
Program allows workers to report close calls without fear
Workers who are able to report safety issues without fear of retaliation are an essential part of building a robust safety culture in the rail industry, the FRA said.
To that end, the C3RS program was designed to enable railroad employees “to share their full experiences, better informing the railroad, other workers, and the entire industry about close calls that employees experience.”
The program:
- informs corrective actions that mitigate hazards, and
- shares data and analyses conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under C3RS with the entire railroad industry.
FRA-hosted workshops and briefings held through the program involve employers sharing lessons learned and best practices to use. The program is meant to aid railroads in “leveraging the experiences employees report to enhance the safety of the rail industry as a whole.”
27 smaller railroads already participating
The FRA has been trying to get the Class I railroads to join the C3RS program “for years.”
The program already has participation from 27 shortline and passenger railroads covering 32,000 employees. For participants, the program “provides a system for proactive safety actions that allows railroad employees, managers, and companies to prevent and reduce the risk of accidents that could lead to unnecessary casualties.”
NASA has received almost 31,000 reports through C3RS since the program began in 2007.
