The personal injury rate at CSX has descreased by 29 percent and the train accident rate by 45 percent in the first six months of 2019.
The figures are in comparison to the same period of 2018.
CSX said its personal injury rate leads the industry so far this year while its train accident rate is at its lowest level in company history.
“There weren’t a lot of wholesale changes that had to take place,” said James Schwichtenberg, vice president and chief safety officer. “It was about strengthening programs that were already in place.”
He gave credit to CSX employees, saying the efforts to improve safety are being driven by employees in the field.
Schwichtenberg said that when the carrier conducted an in-depth study of the cause of injuries and accidents it found that a key cause was human performance.
“Primarily that’s on the non-main track side, the switching side of the house and there were three or four things that show up around shove movements in the yard, misaligned switches, and securement,” he said.
Other causes included engineering and mechanical factors.
CSX is the third Class 1 railroad to fully implement positive train control across its system.
It achieved that milestone when PTC was phased in for all operations in the Detroit and Toledo terminals on June 24.
The other Class 1 railroads that have fully implemented PTC include BNSF and Kansas City Southern.
CSX also has increased its use of inward-facing cameras in locomotive cabs and added 20 road foremen of engines jobs to increase supervision of train crews.
The road foremen ride trains about 450 times a month.
The carrier also reviews locomotive operating data and automatically flags train-handling problems that could lead to derailments.
“We will deploy road foremen to go meet with those employees and make them better operators,” Schwichtenberg said.
At the same time CSX management is emphasizing education over discipline in some situations in which there were rules violations.
It has ended suspensions of up to 30 days that accompanied a major rule violation or multiple rule violations by the same employee in favor of an escalating approach.
CSX now issues a formal reprimand and follows that up with a one-day suspension for a repeat offense or a significant violation.
A five-day suspension would be given for multiple offenses or something “really egregious,” Schwichtenberg said.
Employees found to have violated the operating rules are now given a corrective training day on safety and rules rather than a one-day suspension following a rules violation, the employee is put through a day of safety and rules training.
Schwichtenberg said the purpose of that is to have the employee demonstrate understanding of rules and procedures as well having the ability to perform a task safely.
As for other steps being taken, Schwichtenberg said the engineering department has increased the frequency and quality of track inspections.
Thus far this year CSX has yet to record a broken rail main track derailment.
Aside from visual track inspections and track geometry trains, CSX also has deployed boxcars with track inspection sensors that operate on intermodal trains.
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