are under way in calhoun county, alabama, after another norfolk southern train derailed this week. it s just the latest in a string of train derailments across the country raising concerns about safety on the tracks. it comes as we now learn that railroad officials believe there are nearly 700 rail cars nationwide that could have an issue with loose or defective wheels, similar to the train that derailed in springfield, ohio, last week. polo sandoval is following the story. reporter: that other derailment another challenge for norfolk southern. people really have questions about the safety of rail lines in light of that calhoun, alabama, drone pictures and the damage that was left behind. the good news perhaps, though, no injuries, no hazardous material aboard this particular train going from atlanta to mississippi.
and certainly fits with what the workforce was saying. steve: sure, you mentioned train derailments, since december of 2022, just a couple of months ago, there have been 19 major train derailments across the country and five of them are norfolk southern. congressman, do we need to modernize america s rail lines because, you know, a lot of people don t realize they see the train going by lickety split, they don t realize it takes a mile and a half for them to actually stop a train if they needed. to say. yeah. there is a lot that goes into operating these rail lines. they move a massive amount of our freight. they are critical infrastructure for our country. but, you know, there s a lot of concern that the rail companies are harvesting cash and not investing in the infrastructure in the safety of the equipment. certainly, you know, the dispute between the labor force. steve: sure. and the companied resulted in congress intervening in their
this plan focuses a lot on improving the network of sensors, expanding the network of sensors along the rail lines, which keeps track of the heat on wheel bearings. you might remember that s something that ntsb said was in its initial report, something they were looking at closely from the ntsb power derailment. they re talking about investments in technology and touting the fact they ve signed onto a federal system that allows workers to confidentially report close calls. jesse kirsch in springfield live, thank you very much. this morning, more snow in the forecast. some communities are still cut off in california, and almost a dozen people are dead in the south after a weekend of wild weather swept across the country. in kentucky, more than 100,000 customers still without power this morning after heavy rains and powerful wind gusts pummelled the region. and unfolding right now out west, the desperate situation for residents in the san bernardino mountains after a massive snowstor
particular, we will look at their management practices, their policies. we ll also look at safety culture. that s an important part of this, to make sure there is a robust, comprehensive, strong safety culture in the railroad. that will be part of what we look at. i hear from americans all the time who think, you know what, the fix is always in, these companies make billions of dollars, these rail lines make billions of dollars and then they lobby congress so they have to do very, very little in terms of safety and then what happened in east palestine is just the natural result. what s your response to that? well, we have seen improvements over the decades in rail safety, certainly over the last several decades we ve reduced the number of accidents. we can do so much more. frankly, it should not take an act of congress to improve rail safety. the ntsb has rail worker safety