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Following the recent derailment and having been pressed by Federal Officials, Norfolk Southern returned a lame response to the legitimate concern of future chemical catastrophe in Altoona.
"Already, we have taken corrective action to strengthen our operating and maintenance practices and reduce the risk of a similar incident in the future."
They provided no details, and no level of confidence of what was changed to quell our concerns.
"We take these incidents extremely seriously and are committed to conducting thorough investigations, sharing additional information when appropriate and taking any necessary action to help prevent similar incidents from happening in the future."
The true reason is one their CEO and Board of Directors are too afraid to disclose for fears of losing shareholder confidence. They are pushing that stretch of mainline track, west of Altoona, to its absolute limit to move more freight with less personnel on the longest trains the segment has ever experienced. It's greed.
When Conrail owned the line, the longest trains going around the Horseshoe Curve were 2,000 feet. Now, they are as long as 7,000 feet.
It's not a matter of if, but when, we see a catastrophe not unlike the one that happened in East Palestine, Ohio, in our backyard.
Jacob Wible
Hollidaysburg