July 2009 – Page 7 – Railfanning.org

NTSB Releases Annual Report

July 2, 2009 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board released its annual report to Congress, providing a summary of accident investigations and safety recommendations in the past calendar year. 2008 highlights include: — 19 major accident investigations, including four rail, and 2 pipeline — 129 safety recommendations issued — 67 safety recommendations closed “The calendar year 2008 was an extremely active one as Board staff traveled to accident sites all over the U.S. involving every mode of transportation, lending their expertise and investigative skills,” Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said. “We also completed a number of significant accident investigations, including the August

CSX Coal Train Derails in Ga.

July 1, 2009 Railfanning.org News Wire

UNION CITY, Ga. — More than a dozen cars from a CSX freight train derailed here. No one was injured, but two rail crossings were blocked. “There won’t be any hazardous materials to clean up,” ajc.com quoted CSX spokesman Gary Sease as saying. At the time of the derailment, the train was pulling 100 cars of coal from Kentucky to Florida. “Our investigation always starts with three main factors: the track, the equipment, and how train was being operated,” Sease told ajc.com. Closed intersections could remain off limits to traffic for a number of days.

CSX Announces Commitment to Cut CO2 Emissions by Eight Percent

July 1, 2009 Railfanning.org News Wire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX announced a plan to reduce the CO2 emissions associated with its vast and economically vital train operations by 8 percent per revenue ton mile by 2011. The company made its commitment as part of its participation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Leaders Program, a voluntary program for businesses to inventory and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CSX’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Climate Leaders Program is the first ever from a major U.S. transportation provider. CSX’s commitment will reduce C02 emissions by 2.4 million tons — the equivalent of taking 441,000

Train Crash Kills at Least 14 in Western Italy

July 1, 2009 Voice of America

Fourteen people have been killed and 50 injured after a freight train carrying liquefied natural gas derailed and exploded in northern Italy. The freight cars jumped the tracks and crashed into several homes, setting off an inferno in Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio.

NTSB Offers Update on WMATA Wreck

July 1, 2009 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — In its continuing investigation of the June 22 wreck involving the collision of two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on the Red Line in Washington, D.C., the National Transportation Safety Board has developed the following factual information: — The examination of factors leading up to the accident continues. Investigators have been conducting nightly tests of the train control system at the accident site. Test progress was delayed by some water in underground access areas that made it unsafe for technicians to work on electrical cables until the water could be pumped out. The components being tested