FRA STATISTICS SHOW CSXT MOST DANGEROUS
[From report by Gregory Richards published by the Florida Times-Union]
Government statistics indicate CSX Transportation was the most dangerous of the nation's four biggest freight railroads for most of 2003, according to this report by Gregory Richards published by the Florida Times-Union. The Jacksonville-based company led that pack with the highest rate of employee injuries per 200,000 hours worked for the first 11 months of 2003, according to the most recent data available from the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees the nation's railroads. And CSXT also had the most train derailments, collisions and other calamities through November.
The railroad was third in both those categories in 2002. The elevated figures, which CSXT said have no specific cause, bring an end to two years of falling train accident and employee injury statistics, which are key measures of a railroad's performance. Those rates rose through the latter half of the 1990s.
Michael Ward, chairman and chief executive officer of CSX Corp., CSXT's parent company, expressed his displeasure during a conference call with stock analysts at the end of January. "Our personal injury and derailment numbers were simply too high on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis," Ward said. "In addition, during the fourth quarter we had a higher than normal number of serious injuries, an issue we are aggressively committed to fixing at every level of the company."
CSXT isn't sure exactly what caused the inflated accident and injury rates. One theory is that, after several years of improving safety statistics, the company became complacent. "We weren't as focused on the improvement processes as much as we needed to be," spokesman Adam Hollingsworth said in an interview.
One of the more serious accidents last quarter occurred in Kentucky. A CSXT employee was riding a rail car while switching it to another train, a common practice. Only he fell, passing under the car's sharp, steel wheels. Both of the employee's legs had to be amputated, said Robert Bernard, the company's chief safety officer.
From January 2003 through November, the railroad had four fatalities, one more than during the same period in 2002. More common have been the cuts, slips, sprains and falls. Such accidents reverse a roughly two-year trend of fewer accidents and injuries at CSXT, which operates the East Coast's largest railroad.
Last quarter, the rate of employee injuries per 200,000 hours worked climbed to 2.26, the highest it has been since 2001, according to company. Also, the rate of railroad accidents per 1 million miles traveled hit 4.60 in the fourth quarter, a level last reached in 2000. Those incidents contributed to an extra $100-million in expenses last year. "We did have a horrible year with regards to that," CSX Chief Financial Officer Oscar Munoz said during the analyst conference call.
Even with the run-ups in accident and injury rates in the late 1990s and last year, the rate of CSXT employee injuries has dropped from the early 1990s. FRA data shows that from January through November 1990, CSXT employees were injured at a rate of 5.25 per 200,000 hours worked. That figure was 2.20 last year, with a low of 1.78 in 1995. During that same time, the train accident rate fell slightly, from 4.82 per one million miles traveled in 1990 to 4.12 last year. The rate was as low as 1.65 in 1995.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, railroading had in 2002 an accident and injury rate better than several industries, at half the rate of agricultural occupations and almost half the rate of injuries found overall in the wholesale and retail trades. Getting CSXT's safety back on track this year won't involve new programs or policies, but rather a rededication to the same processes company officials say served them well in 2001 and 2002, when accident rates declined. These include teaching employees about safe working habits and having workers conduct safety briefings daily before tackling new tasks -- even if it's only an office meeting.
Union officials say the company generally is willing to partner with them on safety initiatives. The company has been a regular bronze and silver winner of the Harriman Memorial Safety Award, a prestigious industry award for railroads with the best employee safety records. CSXT won a certificate of commendation last year for having at least two years of improved employee safety in a business where operating multi-ton locomotives and lumbering rail cars in wide extremes of weather always has given accidents plenty of chances to occur.
Some of the safety improvements continue. Earlier this month, the employees at CSX's four First Coast rail terminals celebrated one year of working without incurring any injuries. Just two years ago, the terminals suffered more than 20 injuries during a year, the company said.
But CSXT also has lagged behind its peers on capital expenditures. From 1991 to 1998, with the exception of 1996, CSXT spent less per mile of track than any of the three other major railroads, according to regulatory filings. Track that isn't well maintained is more likely to cause accidents.
"We got pretty good at stretching a dollar," Tom Schmidt, CSXT's former vice president for engineering, told The Washington Post in an article published in December. "But the rubber band got stretched a little too thin in the late 1990s. By 2000, time caught up with us."
CSXT essentially was placed on probation from 2000 to 2001 after a Federal Railroad Administration audit sparked by an increasing number of train accidents in the late 1990s turned up numerous track deficiencies. An audit released in December by the Transportation Department found that CSXT was replacing track ballast at a level "significantly lower" than its peer railroads during the past two decades, a finding the company disputes. But there also was good news in the audit for CSXT: The report noted that nearly all the track problems found in 2002 were repaired and replaced within 30 days, indicating that track maintenance wasn't being deferred.
Despite numbers showing more accidents last year, officials of several unions working with CSXT said they didn't notice an unusually high number of mishaps last year. But if they had, the sentiment of some was, CSXT wouldn't ignore the matter.
"For whatever problems they have, they try to work jointly in a partnership to try to solve them," said Jim Brunkenhoefer, national legislative director for the United Transportation Union, which represents most of CSXT's conductors and some of its locomotive engineers. "This is something I can't say about the other railroads."
Four unions contacted by The Florida Times-Union expressed concern that the entire railroad industry was sending fewer people out to do an increasing amount of work, a trend they see leading to higher accident rates. Michael Cantrell, CSXT's senior vice president of engineering, said the need to work harder isn't going away. But that doesn't mean safety will be compromised.
"Just as factories have had to get more productive and take costs out, we do the same thing," he said. "I don't make any apology for it. It's what we're in business to do."
Ward, CSX's chairman, said he didn't believe the spike in accidents would affect a plan announced in November to trim between 800 and 1,000 non-union jobs -- up to 20 percent of its non-union workforce -- from the company. Only about 20 positions were shed last year, and all in December. They mainly were senior executives.
"I don't think that would have an impact in the field," Ward said. "Probably more the issue is the fact that the railroad is not running as well as it needs to be. Normally what we find is as you have a smoother running operation, your safety performance also improves."
[United Transportation Union, 2-14-04, from report by Gregory Richards published by the Florida Times-Union]