{"id":17726,"date":"2023-09-11T04:18:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T09:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17726"},"modified":"2023-09-11T04:18:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T09:18:04","slug":"federal-railroad-inspectors-find-alarming-number-of-defects-on-union-pacific-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17726","title":{"rendered":"Federal railroad inspectors find alarming number of defects on Union Pacific this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) \u2014 Federal inspectors said they found an alarming number of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world\u2019s largest railyard in western Nebraska this summer, and the railroad was reluctant to fix the problems.
Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose\u00a0wrote a letter\u00a0to UP\u2019s top three executives Friday expressing his concern that the defects represent a \u201csignificant risk to\u00a0rail safety\u00a0” on the Union Pacific railroad.
Bose said the 19.93% defect rate on rail cars and the 72.69% rate for locomotives that inspectors found in July and August are both twice the national average. But the letter didn\u2019t detail what kind of defects inspectors found in the Bailey Yard in North Platte, and there are a myriad of federal rules.
\u201cThe compliance of the rolling stock (freight cars and locomotives) on the UP network is poor, and UP was unwilling or unable to take steps to improve the condition of their equipment,\u201d Bose said in his letter.
Bose questioned whether the recent layoffs of 94 locomotive craft employees and 44 carmen across the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad that is one of the nation\u2019s largest left UP without enough people to complete the necessary repairs.
Kristen South, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific, said Sunday that the layoffs weren\u2019t a problem, and the railroad remains committed to safety.
\u201cUnion Pacific will never compromise on the safety of our employees. Safety is always our first priority, and we are reviewing and will address the concerns raised by the FRA,\u201d South said.
Railroad safety\u00a0has been a key concern nationwide this year ever since another railroad,\u00a0Norfolk Southern, had a train derail\u00a0and catch fire in eastern Ohio in February. That East Palestine derailment prompted\u00a0regulators\u00a0and\u00a0members of Congress\u00a0to call for reforms, but\u00a0few significant changes\u00a0have been made since then.
South said the railroad has appropriate staffing levels with enough capacity to have \u201ca buffer to allow for the natural ebb and flow nature of our business.\u201d
Those layoffs that UP announced late last month came after the FRA wrapped up its inspection, and they represent a tiny fraction of the railroad\u2019s workforce that numbers more than 30,000.
Union Pacific\u2019s\u00a0new CEO Jim Vena\u00a0just took over the top spot at the railroad last month. Union Pacific has a network of 32,400 miles (52,000 kilometers) of track in 23 Western states.
apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) \u2014 Federal inspectors said they found an alarming number of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world\u2019s largest railyard in western Nebraska this summer, and the railroad was reluctant to fix the problems.Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose\u00a0wrote a letter\u00a0to UP\u2019s top three executives Friday expressing his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[22321,22237,22320],"class_list":["post-17726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-federal-railroad-inspectors","tag-this-summer","tag-union-pacific-railroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17728,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17726\/revisions\/17728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}