AAR Safety Fact Sheet

Freight Railroads Move America Safely
Freight railroads take a holistic approach to safety through ongoing

private investments, employee training, implementation of technology Key Takeaways
and community outreach. Working together with their employees, • Railroads are a very safe way to
suppliers, customers and government partners such as the Federal move freight and are working
Railroad Administration (FRA), railroads are constantly implementing new hard to improve infrastructure and
technologies and operating practices to meet the industry’s ultimate goal equipment safety, reduce human
of zero accidents. error and protect the rail network
every day.
Employee Safety
In 2020, the employee injury rate was at an all-time low. • Since 2000, train accident and
hazmat accident rates are down
The rail industry has lower employee injury rates than most other sectors, 33% and 64%, respectively, while
including trucking, airlines, manufacturing and construction. State-of-the- the rail employee injury rate in
art training centers with simulators and virtual reality enable employees 2020 was at an all-time low.
to practice real-life skills in a controlled environment, while daily
employee meetings emphasize teamwork and continual learning on the
job. New technologies, like drone-based bridge inspections, help keep
employees out of harm’s way while giving them the tools to excel at their
jobs. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, railroads are taking
comprehensive steps to safeguard their employees, who are appropriately
considered “essential” rail workers.
Network Safety
In recent years, America’s freight railroads have been pouring record
amounts back into their infrastructure and equipment, which has helped
improve safety.
In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded America’s
rail network the highest grade in its most recent Infrastructure Report Card,
a B. Since 2010, America’s Class I railroads have spent more than $250
billion on track equipment while the train accident rate dropped 33%
between 2000 and 2020.
Technology
Innovations have driven safety gains over the last two decades.
Today’s highly skilled rail workforce use technology — from new design specifications for rail cars and track
components to smart sensors to big data and drones — to monitor network and equipment health in real-time.
These technologies help guide maintenance planning, which has lead to greater safety, accuracy and
productivity than ever before. Automated technologies will allow further progress in challenging areas like
reducing human error and improving grade crossing safety. Many of these rail-related technological
advancements are developed at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, Colorado, a
subsidiary of the AAR that is widely considered the best rail research facility in the world.
For example, Positive Train Control (PTC) is technology that reduces the number of human error-caused
accidents by automatically stopping or slowing a train to prevent four specific types of accidents. These include
train-to-train collisions; derailments caused by excessive speed; accidents that can occur if trains are routed
down the incorrect track; and unauthorized train movements on tracks undergoing maintenance. Today, PTC is
fully implemented and in operation on 100% of Class I PTC route-miles network wide.
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Preparedness & Response
Railroads work with public and private partners daily to monitor and protect the
nearly 140,000-mile freight rail network.
Natural disasters, physical and cybersecurity threats, and pandemics have the
potential to disrupt railroad operations and hamper federal and state response
and recovery efforts. To help ensure continued operations, railroads employ
cyber and physical security experts, police officers and intelligence
professionals to monitor, identify and respond to threats. Working together with
federal, state, local, and industry partners, railroads maintain and implement
comprehensive response plans based on past experiences such as Hurricane
Katrina, 9/11 and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Through collaboration and daily
intelligence sharing, railroads stay ahead of emerging threats.
Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) Safety

More than 99.99% of all hazmat moved by rail reaches its destination without a
release caused by a train accident.
Railroads work with customers, suppliers, communities and federal regulators Railroads worked with the
to move hazardous materials safely and mitigate the rare accidents that do International Association of Fire
occur. Along with calling for rigorous tank car design standards, railroads train Chiefs to develop the AskRail
more than 20,000 first responders each year; created the AskRail mobile app app, which provides immediate
that gives emergency responders immediately access to information on what is access to timely data about
what type of hazmat a railcar is
in a particular rail car and how to respond to it; and developed software with the carrying so first responders can
FRA that determines the safest rail routes for hazmat. These efforts — coupled make an informed decision
with ongoing investment, technology, employee training, improved operating about how to respond to a rail
practices and community outreach efforts — have lowered hazmat accident emergency.
rates 64% since 2000.
Pedestrians & Motorists

Railroads work with state, local and federal officials, safety organizations,
technology companies and the public to reduce accidents and injuries at
highway-rail grade crossings and along railroad tracks.
Collisions at grade crossings, along with incidents involving trespassers on

railroad property, account for well over 90% of rail-related fatalities. These
incidents usually arise from factors outside railroad control, but railroads
are committed to reducing their frequency.
Railroads invest heavily in grade crossing safety, spending hundreds of

millions of dollars each year to close, improve and maintain crossings and millions more on educational
programs, including Operation Lifesaver, a non-profit dedicated to improving safe behavior at grade crossings.
Thanks to these efforts — as well as the federal Section 130 program, which allocates approximately $230
million per year to states for grade crossing improvements — the grade crossing collision rate was down 46%
between 2000 and 2020. Despite this progress, much work remains.
Performance-based Regulations
Forward-thinking regulations allow railroads to use technology to better achieve shared safety goals.
The FRA oversees virtually every aspect of freight rail operations, including track and equipment
inspections, employee certification, operating speeds and signaling systems. Freight railroads often
exceed FRA regulations while also advocating for even tougher safety standards. In the years to come,
new regulations should be performance-based, rather than prescriptive. This will focus industry attention
and effort on the outcome, rather than on how that outcome is achieved, which will allow railroads to
innovate with the latest technologies that will bring them closer to an accident-free future.
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Freight Railroads Move America Safely

Freight railroads take a holistic approach to safety through ongoing

July 2021 / Sign up for AAR’s newsletter at AAR.org/Signal

Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) Safety

Pedestrians & Motorists

Collisions at grade crossings, along with incidents involving trespassers on

Railroads invest heavily in grade crossing safety, spending hundreds of

July 2021 / Sign up for AAR’s newsletter at AAR.org/Signal

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