"This is evidenced by multiple amputations and crushing injuries recently occurring to newly promoted conductors."
"Compounding troubles in the rail industry is the fact that train lengths are growing and so are the number of major derailments."
"With so much change happening in this industry, this hearing provides an opportunity to examine the current state of freight rail safety and discuss the challenges of the day."
"the short line freight industry is safe, and getting safer."
"Operation Lifesaver, which this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1972, is a non-profit public safety education and awareness organization dedicated to reducing collisions, fatal..."
"All seven of the Class I railroads have implemented some form of precision scheduled railroading (PSR), which focuses on driving profits to shareholders by reducing expenses such as important capital ..."
"The safety implications of this practice are, of course, considerable."
"It appears that the major railroads are willing to undertake operations that they know to be unnecessarily problematic for short-term gain."
"The Nation needs the railroads to grow markets, not shed traffic or 'collar' cars."
"This shows the concern about safety and of the extraordinary increase in fatalities year over year, largest single annual increase ever recorded since we started keeping these statistics."
"This money needs to be invested to resolve these problems. For years, all we emphasized was fast throughput for cars and trucks."
"We are kind of pathetic in terms of our world ranking: 64th in fatalities per capita on our roadways in America."