Railway safety bill that would increase fine for blockages, limit train lengths up for hearing Tuesday
A bill that aims to limit the length of trains and increase the fine for blocking railway crossings is getting another look this year in the General Assembly after similar legislation failed last year.
Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, who reintroduced the bill, said the railways have played an important role in American history and many of the rules they are governed by predate modern transportation.
“There are real safety concerns about long trains stopping traffic, stopping emergency services from getting through, stopping commuters from being able to get to their homes,” she said. “And often when they get longer, they also get slower.”
House Bill 385 is up for discussion in a House Labor and Commerce subcommittee meeting Tuesday.
The legislation would increase the fine to companies if they leave a train blocking an intersection for over five minutes from $100 to $500, limit train lengths to 8,500 feet (about 1.6 miles) on mainline and branch lines and require two-man crews — a measure Simonds said is important during emergency situations.
Simonds said trains used to typically be around a mile long and now can be up to 3 miles long.
“If people are thinking, ‘Gosh, it seems like I have to wait at the railroad crossing a lot more these days,’ they’re not dreaming it up,” she said.
The issue has come up regionally, as Hampton Roads planners are taking a look at the area’s most problematic railroad crossings to devise recommendations to improve them and reduce traffic blockages.
According to the Association of American Railroads, the median length of a train on Class I railroads was 5,400 feet in 2021 and only 10% of trains were longer than 9,800 feet.
About 115 people have submitted comments in support of Simonds’ bill. Submissions overwhelmingly came from railroad workers and their family members, expressing concerns about the possibilities involving already overworked employees working on one-man trains and some pointing to how railway infrastructure is not built for how long trains are now.
Ronnie Hobbs, lobbyist for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, supports the bill and said other states have proposed similar measures. Both he and Simonds criticized the modern practice of Precision Scheduled Railroading, which calls for calls for running fewer and longer trains, saying the risks being taken to increase profits are too great.
Over his almost 30 years working on the railroad, Hobbs has seen the crew numbers shrink. Some of that decrease makes sense with new technology, but he said reducing staffing on trains to one person is downright dangerous.
Representatives of the Virginia Railroad Association, Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, the Virginia Maritime Association, the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce spoke in opposition to the bill last year.
They cited pending and existing federal rulemaking, the impact to businesses by limiting train lengths and complications companies would face as trains cross into the state as reasons to reject the bill, according to a recording of the 2023 subcommittee session. They also discussed how longer train lengths reduce the number of trains needed, and how labor shortages have causing hiring difficulties.
Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the latest iteration of the bill, how it would impact operations, or what current proposals the company has to ensure safety and flow of traffic. A spokesperson said the company generally does not comment on proposed legislation.
There were no comments submitted in opposition of Simonds’ bill as of Monday afternoon.
Simonds said she originally introduced the bill as she is concerned about toxic spills resulting from safety failures.
“We have railroad tracks running up and down through the center of Newport News,” she said. “We’ve got many schools close to the railroad tracks, so I have always been keeping an eye on what is being transported by rail and what safeguards we have in place.”
No federal railroad safety legislation has been passed since the derailment of train cars carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio, and derailments went up in the first ten months of 2023 across the top five railway companies, despite pledges to improve safety, according to reporting in the New York Times.
Companion legislation to Simonds’ bill proposed in the Senate and is in a subcommittee on Commerce and Labor. However, the bill has been pared back to only include requiring a two-person crew on trains, according to Monday documents.
Simonds said she won’t be paring her bill back at this time and wants to have a discussion on all the facets of the bill as she submitted it.
Ian Munro, 757-447-4097, ian.munro@virginiamedia.com
