当地时间2023年2月3日晚，美国俄亥俄州一列火车脱轨并引发火灾，事故现场火光冲天、毒烟弥漫。附近居民每天都在忍受着有毒物质的残害，面临健康威胁。
As railroad operators have faced more competition with long-haul truckers, the major companies have worked to decrease costs, including by cutting the workforce.
The railroad industry has cut roughly 30%, or 45,000 total workers since 2015, and since deploying precision scheduled railroading. Norfolk Southern has shed roughly 40% of its 30,456-person workforce.
It had concluded its three-year plan to transform into a more “innovative and efficient railroad,” reaching record levels of productivity across its operations, including increasing average train weight by 21% and train length by 20%.
Longer, heavier trains make it harder to brake in an emergency.
US railroad workers say the train derailment in Ohio should be an “eye-opening” revelation for Congress and “an illustration of how the railroads operate, and how they’re getting away with a lot of things”.
The company noted that it lobbied both Congress and the executive agencies working on the Department of Transportation rule, and “opposed additional speed limitations and requiring ECP brakes.”
Trains and rails are owned by private companies. That also means that a lot of information about their operations is not public.
A USA TODAY analysis of federal safety data by rate of train accidents per million train miles shows that the rate of accidents has been ticking up for Norfolk Southern progressively over the past decade.
As the toxic aftermath of the major Norfolk Southern derailment plays out, Railroad Workers United calls for public ownership of a system beset with “profiteering, pillaging and irresponsibility.”
The private and inadequately regulated industry has “shown itself incapable of doing the job.”
（来源：“中国日报双语新闻”微信公众号，修订发布；图片来自网络，侵删）RWU还表示，俄亥俄州的脱轨事故无疑暴露了美国铁路的系统性问题，即所有运营商都被利润而不是安全驱动。该联合会警告称，如果不对“已腐蚀的行业趋势”采取行动，俄亥俄州的这场灾难只会是更多灾难中的一起。
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