Rail Wrecks & Reform

Rail Wrecks & Reform Tracking the history of rail disasters, the people affected, and the reforms that need to happen with the railroad.

History, accountability, and railroad regulation.

07/06/2026

The FRA itself has acknowledged that when a railroad lacks sufficien t staff to carry out track, inspections and maintenance, it places undue burden on the workers who remain and will struggle to meet federal safety requirements.

Two workers. Miles of track. A full section gang used to be 8-12 people. PSR changed that. UP alone cut 1,300 track main...
07/06/2026

Two workers. Miles of track. A full section gang used to be 8-12 people. PSR changed that. UP alone cut 1,300 track maintenance jobs in one round of cuts. Is this safe?

PSR cut 30,000 railroad jobs industry-wide. Track maintenance workers took some of the heaviest hits. 62% of union safet...
07/06/2026

PSR cut 30,000 railroad jobs industry-wide. Track maintenance workers took some of the heaviest hits. 62% of union safety reps cite understaffing as the top safety hazard. Who's maintaining your tracks?

The Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account borrowed over $850 million from the Railroad Retirement Account during the 1...
07/06/2026

The Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account borrowed over $850 million from the Railroad Retirement Account during the 1980s crisis — and a special repayment tax on railroad employers was still being collected until June 1993, a full decade after the crisis began.

07/06/2026

Railroad retirement benefits were tax-free until 1983. And the solvency act passed. Tier 1, tier 2, both taxed for the first time. Workers have paid ever since to fix a crisis, the recession created.

Before 1983 railroad retirement benefits weren't federally taxed. Then the Solvency Act passed. Tier 1. Tier 2. Income t...
07/06/2026

Before 1983 railroad retirement benefits weren't federally taxed. Then the Solvency Act passed. Tier 1. Tier 2. Income taxes on benefits. Railroad workers have been paying ever since.

07/05/2026

The RRB’s goal was 100 days. Average claims take more than a year to process. Call the RRB and you will understand, phone wait times can be more than 4 hours.

Phone hold times average 4 hours. These are workers who paid in their whole careers. RRB disability claims averaged 473 ...
07/05/2026

Phone hold times average 4 hours. These are workers who paid in their whole careers. RRB disability claims averaged 473 days to process in 2025. The RRB's goal was 100 days. Broken system?

Railroad workers pay into their own retirement system their entire careers — never Social Security. Then they wait. In 2...
07/04/2026

Railroad workers pay into their own retirement system their entire careers — never Social Security. Then they wait. In 2025 the average RRB disability claim took 473 days to process. Is that acceptable?

07/04/2026

After 3 major derailments involving trains longer than 12,000 feet, the FRA began requiring class one railroads to report monthly data on train length and tonnage.

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