First held in the U.S. in 2017, this National Rail Safety week effort among Operation Lifesaver Inc., State Operation Lifesaver Programs and rail safety partners across the U.S., Canada and Mexico is now called See Tracks? Think Train Week throughout the U.S. to better reflect the purpose of this week-long observance:
- Preventing railroad crossing and trespass incidents across North America
- Concentrating public attention on the need for rail safety education
In this article, South Carolina Public Radio will take you on a behind the scenes look at how the railroad industry impacts our state in regards to economic impact, passenger rail and railroad safety.
Author Note: Check back each day this week for a new section! Monday: Operation Lifesaver, Tuesday: CSX, Wednesday: Amtrak, Thursday: Norfolk Southern, Friday: 4 minute audio wrap
Operation Lifesaver
Operation Lifesaver (OLI) is a nonprofit organization and a nationally recognized leader of rail safety education. The organization has been around since 1972 and has been committed to preventing collisions, injuries and fatalities on and around railroad tracks and rail grade crossings. OLI has programs in Washington D.C and in 47 states, including South Carolina.
Bridget Videtto, South Carolina's State Coordinator for OLI, said that South Carolina ranks 11th in the country for the highest number of railway collisions and fatalities. Videtto said that they have a leadership committee for South Carolina that consists of representatives from the two biggest freight train companies in our state: Norfolk Southern and CSX. OLI acts as the safety representative for the palmetto state.
"We like to call them incidents instead of accidents as we think it is preventable," Videtto said, "We can educate our communities and we can do our best to encourage people to make the right choices."
Within the last three years, South Carolina has had 163 incidents at highway grade crossings, with 20 people killed in collisions and 50 people injured. Videtto also said that our state is experiencing trespassing issues. In the last three years, 23 people have been killed and 15 people have been injured from trespassing onto private rail yards. According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), trespassing is the leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States, with more than 500 trespass fatalities each year.
It's important to remember that it is illegal to access private railroad property anywhere other than a designated pedestrian or roadway crossing. The FRA states that some trespassers are loitering or are engaged in recreational activities such as taking photographs, jogging, bicycling, hunting, or operating recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs). According to the FRA, riding ROVs along railroad tracks leads to the erosion of an important part of the track foundation known as ballast, or the rock and soil material that supports the ties and rail. Damage to the ballast degrades the entire track structure and can lead to a train derailment—which can cause a hazardous materials spill or damage to other people and property.
"The track is meant for the trains and the trains only," said Bridget Videtto, "They don't have a steering wheel to get out of the way, that is what they are meant to be on."
The average freight train travels around 55 miles per hour and at that speed, it takes about a mile for a train to come to a complete stop. That's roughly 18 football fields in length. Videtto said that if you are stuck on railroad tracks, there is a way to contact the train company to alert them of an obstruction.
The Emergency Notification Systems (ENS) sign gives the public critical emergency contact information at every highway-rail grade crossing. The information on the ENS sign enables the public to reach the railroad responsible for the crossing and to identify the specific crossing in the event of an emergency.
The signs contain the railroad’s emergency contact number and the U.S. Department of Transportation National Crossing Inventory Number, which identifies the exact location of the crossing to the railroads.
In our state, Bridget Videtto said that Greenville, Spartanburg, Charleston and Richland counties are the top 4 counties for highway rail collisions over the past five to ten years.
"Trains have the right of way 100% of the time," said Videtto, "That is what their road is, it's the track."
For more on Operation Lifesaver and volunteer opportunities, you can visit oli.org.
CSX
Headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, CSX Corporation was formed on November 1, 1980, by the merger of two major eastern railroads: Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line. Chessie's predecessors include the nation's first railroad, Baltimore & Ohio, as well as the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and Western Maryland Railway. Seaboard's predecessors include Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line and Louisville & Nashville. The merged railroads began operating as CSX Transportation Inc. in 1986.
According to the company, nearly two-thirds of Americans live within CSX’s service territory.
In South Carolina, CSX has 1,760 miles of track, with sites in Moncks Corner, Florence, Goose Creek, Lugoff and more. The company maintains 404 public grade crossings and 386 private grade crossings in our state. CSX’s capital investment in South Carolina last year was 84.8 million dollars.
CSX carries a variety of commodities that are important to our economy and way of life, including consumer products, automobiles, food and agriculture products, and coal. The company also partners with short line railroads in our state such as Palmetto Rail, Pickens Railway, Pee Dee River Railroad Corporation and many more.
"It's a very rewarding industry that we work in," said John Dillard, the Director of State Relations at CSX, "But it can be also a very unforgiving environment."
The most recent accident with CSX in our state was last year in September when a semi-truck that was hauling a military tank got stuck at a railroad crossing. A CSX train collided with the semi but thankfully no one was injured.
At CSX, the company has four core pillars: Safety, Service, Sustainability, and Stewardship. In the company's 2024 Sustainability Report, CSX achieved the lowest lost workdays in the company's history and provided SAFE CSX training and in-field coaching to 100% of operations managers.
CSX also hosts a free online and in-person training program to educate emergency personnel on how to safely respond to incidents on and around railroad property and equipment. Last year, the company trained more than 8,200 first responders and law enforcement personnel to protect community safety.
When it comes to accidents, the company sees everything from trespassing to vehicles going around the crossing gates and even stalled cars having mechanical problems. If you are in a situation where your vehicle stalls out on the tracks, John Dillard says that the most important thing you can do is to remove yourself from the vehicle and get away from the tracks.
"Don't try to remove the obstacle yourself," said Dillard, "Don't try to push your car off track".
Remember, at every railroad crossing in the country there are white and blue signs with a phone number that will connect you directly to that specific railroad. If your car is ever stuck on a railroad crossing, it's important to locate that sign and call the number posted on it.
When it comes to handling infrastructure and rail improvements, CSX is investing $2.7 billion this year, according to data from the Association of American Railroads. Part of that investment includes rebuilding the Blue Ridge Subdivision in Tennessee and North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene damaged 60 miles of track and three bridges. In our state, CSX will be funding $10 million for a $131.5 million project that will build 22.7 miles of a new line for the state-owned Palmetto Railways, which will connect the Camp Hall Commerce Park in Ridgeville to the CSX main line. The project will support service to and from the Volvo auto plant in Berkeley County.
CSX has also been working with multiple entities on the Assembly Street Railroad Corridor and Consolidation project in Columbia, which addresses rail-crossing issues involving both Norfolk Southern and CSX rail lines.
"It takes a lot of planning and collaboration," said Dillard, "But hopefully in the end, make it safer for people, more convenient, more efficient for us to operate as railroads."
Amtrak
Amtrak began service on May 1, 1971. At this point in time, passenger rail in the United States was in a rapid decline. To put it into perspective, in 1950 there were around 9,000 passenger trains in service. By 1970, there were about 450 passenger trains in service. The creation of Amtrak by the U.S. Congress in 1970 marked the first time any rail passenger service received direct financial support from the U.S government (however land grants had been given to railroads to spur completion of a transcontinental line in the 19th century). Since its inception, Amtrak has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds annually to cover operating costs.
In the early 2000s, ridership started to steadily increase for the company. Mostly due to the launch of the Acela Express in the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C. and Boston. The Acela Express is a high-speed electrified train that can cruise at 125 miles per hour and reach speeds of about 150 miles per hour.
According to Amtrak, last year the company achieved an all-time ridership record with a historic 32.8 million passengers. Amtrak also invested $4.5 billion into major infrastructure and fleet projects, which the company says is the largest boom in rail construction in Amtrak’s history. With these investments and improvements, Amtrak hopes to reach their goal of doubling ridership to 66 million by 2040.
For South Carolina, Amtrak runs 8 daily trains across 4 permanent routes that serve 11 stations. These routes operate on host railroads, which are operated and controlled by a private company such as Norfolk Southern or CSX. Amtrak owns around 623 miles of track, which primarily is in the Northeast Corridor. In total, Amtrak operates on a network of over 21,000 miles of track, 97% of that track is owned by other railroad companies. None of the tracks in South Carolina are owned by Amtrak.
However, federal law requires host railroads to give Amtrak trains preference over freight trains. This requirement was established by the Amtrak Improvement Act in 1973, with the aim of preventing delays caused by freight train interference.
In 2024, Amtrak served 182,208 passengers in South Carolina, with Charleston leading the way in ridership with 66,597 passengers.
However, even Amtrak experiences accidents. One of the most recent accidents in South Carolina was in February this year when an Amtrak passenger train hit a pickup truck in Columbia. According to the Columbia Police Department, the pickup truck went around the crossing arms where the signal lights were activated and was hit by the train. The driver ultimately died from the collision.
“We'd like to say stop, look, listen, and live.” Said Justin Meko the Vice President of Operational Safety, “You can’t just bank on what you saw from a clear crossing yesterday will be a clear crossing today.”
A few issues Amtrak sees across the country and in the Palmetto State are vehicles that stop on tracks at traffic lights, people taking pictures and videos on tracks, people walking on tracks with headphones on and tractor trailers that will hang over the tracks. Meko said that many times semi-truck operators are operating in communities they’re not familiar with. So, at times, semi-trucks will get stuck on railroad tracks which eventually cause collisions with trains.
To combat this, Meko said that Amtrak has been partnering with a company called Waze. Waze is a community-based navigation and traffic app that provides real-time, turn-by-turn directions and road information by leveraging data from other drivers and map editors. According to Amtrak, the decision to add railway crossing alerts to the Waze map follows recommendations from both the US senate and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to app-based navigation platforms like Waze. Doing so can help contribute to the efforts to reduce the number of drivers involved in railroad crossing fatalities.
Another thing to keep in mind about Amtrak trains is that their trains originate at a higher speed. Across the county and in South Carolina, Amtrak trains reach max speeds of up to 79 miles per hour. The typical freight train travels at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour.
“It's very difficult to gauge the speed of the train that's approaching just because of the angles that you're looking at,” said Marc Magliari, the Senior Public Relations Manager for Amtrak, “So don't even try (to cross), just wait.”
Amtrak remains as the only provider of long-distance, intercity passenger rail service across the continental U.S.
“We're proud to be America's railroad,” said Justin Meko, “And we do not take lightly the responsibility that we have to our customers and the communities that we operate in and around.”
Norfolk Southern
Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Norfolk Southern's history began in 1982 when Southern Railway and the Norfolk and Western Railway merged. The Southern Railway was founded in 1894 and built a large freight network in the Southeast. Meanwhile, the Norfolk and Western Railway was established in 1881 and extended their reach into the Midwest. The company also maintains roughly over 28,000 miles of track. In our state and according to data from 2022, Norfolk Southern operates 762 miles of track, serves 423 customers, and spent around 63 million dollars on roadway and infrastructure improvements.
Norfolk delivers approximately 7 million car loads annually, from agriculture to consumer goods. Scout Motors tapped Norfolk Southern's industrial development and automotive logistics in 2023, as the company announced it will invest $2 billion in Richland County, for a new electric vehicle automotive manufacturing facility. In a post made on Facebook in April, the company has installed the mainline switch that will connect directly to the future EV plant.
Recently, The Union Pacific Railroad has announced plans to acquire Norfolk Southern, in a deal worth $85 billion dollars. If approved by federal regulators, this merger would create the first transcontinental railroad network in the United States.
"For us it's business as usual," said Chief Safety Officer, John Fleps, "The merger is something that's going to take some time. We focus on what's immediately ahead of us, running our railroad as safely as possible, And, you know, with projects like Scout Motors, those are going to bring more volume and more traffic to the state."
With more volume, comes more accidents. The most recent accident with Norfolk Southern was in Summerville when a pedestrian was struck by a Norfolk Southern freight train while walking on the tracks. More information on that accident can be found on Summerville’s Police Department Facebook page.
"I think it's a common misconception that people can detect the presence of a train." said Fleps, "And the reality of the matter is every single day across our railroad and really more broadly across the industry, there are tragedies that occur."
Fleps went on to say that another misconception that people may not know is that railroad property is private property.
"It's just like any other business. We just have a lot of it." said Fleps, " And it's not a place for people to walk or to travel off-road. The only time you should ever be near any tracks is going across a public grade crossing or a pedestrian crossing."
When it comes to handling infrastructure, Norfolk Southern has an acronym; P-P-P, which stands for Public-Private-Partnerships. This means that Norfolk works closely with municipalities, state departments of transportation, and even the Department of Transportation to effectuate those projects.
An example of this can be found with Norfolk Southern working with the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), on the Assembly Street Railroad Corridor and Consolidation project in Columbia, which addresses rail-crossing issues involving both Norfolk Southern and CSX rail lines. For more on that project you can visit this link.
According to the company, last year the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) reported a 40% drop in mainline train accidents that involve Norfolk Southern. Also, the FRA reported a 25% reduction in reportable train accidents.
"Trains are much of a hazard today as they were when they first started rolling in South Carolina in 1827," said John Fleps, "So Just communicate, talk about it, respect the risk."
