WASHINGTON — Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose, in a Wednesday letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, has cautioned against “backsliding, as a result of a change in leadership or otherwise, on the safety-oriented path” the railroad has established since the February 2023 East Palestine derailment.
Bose’s letter comes in response to an effort by activist investor group Ancora to unseat Shaw, replacing him with former UPS President Jim Barber Jr. and installing former CSX head of operations Jamie Boychuk as chief operating officer [see “Activist investor seeks to install former UPS president …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 20, 2023].
In his letter, Bose notes several NS safety initiative, and writes that he particularly commends “your commitment to investing in safety as those investments are imperative for continuing the unique progress your railroad has made; early data for 2023 suggest that NS was the only Class I railroad to achieve significant reductions in the rate of mainline derailments this past year.” The steps NS has taken, he writes, are “often in notable contrast to industry peers.”
But in cautioning that such progress continue, Bose concludes that backsliding “will likely attract renewed oversight attention from my office as we pursue our safety mission.”
Notably, the Bose letter was released not by the FRA, but by the Surface Transportation Board. STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman expressed concerns about the planned proxy fight at Norfolk Southern in an interview with Trains News Wire earlier this month, wondering if the investor’s goal was “to reinstate the bad old days when the marching orders in the C-suite were to cut, cut, cut? That would be bad.” [See “Activist investor’s plans to oust Norfolk Southern’s CEO alarm Surface Transportation Board chairman,” News Wire, Feb. 1, 2024].
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