WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board is considering a request from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to expand its current investigation of Norfolk Southern safety practices to cover all Class I railroads, the Capitol Hill news site Roll Call reports.
Schumer (D-N.Y.) made the request earlier this month in a letter to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, about a week after the NTSB had announced its investigation of NS [see “Senator calls for NTSB to expand …,” Trains News Wire, March 15, 2023].
Roll Call reports that Homendy said after testifying at a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that the NTSB is considering the request, but that she needs to have further conversations with him to get more clarity about questions in his letter. That letter included six questions he wanted the safety board to consider, including if “deregulatory pushes have contributed to these derailments and increase in deaths” and whether railroads “have a culture of ignoring their own safety standards.”
An NTSB staff member told Roll Call that Homendy hopes to respond to Schumer’s letter “in the near future.”
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