Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Rail Safety Bill Hours After Another Derailment

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), co-sponsor Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), and other Ohio U.S. representatives introduced the Reducing Accidents in Locomotives (RAIL) Act at a March 30 press conference hours after a BNSF Railway train carrying ethanol derailed and caught fire in Raymond, Minnesota.
Residents near the crash site were evacuated. No injuries were reported, and the derailment’s cause is under investigation, BNSF reported.
“This is all timely,” Johnson said, noting the Minnesota derailment. “So what we’re talking about here today is very, very important.”
Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, are on fire at midday on Feb. 4, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)
The RAIL Act was announced in the aftermath of Norfolk Southern’s toxic train derailment on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, a village of about 4,700 residents a mile from the Pennsylvania border….}