After compiling data on the current state of U.S. railways, American netizens lamented, 'This looks like a Fourth World country.' How should we evaluate America’s basic transportation infrastructure? What factors have led to this situation?

Capitalists calculate shrewdly: they prefer bearing the risk of occasional accidents—whose resulting losses are still lower than the cost of hiring track maintenance workers. Thus, when we search for photos of U.S. railways, we find appalling conditions—uneven, poorly maintained tracks that aren’t even leveled properly. Under such substandard hardware and management, it would be surprising *not* to have accidents. Statistics show that between 2013 and 2022—over a decade—there were 110,000 railway accidents in the U.S., claiming 7,939 lives. Among these, 12,441 involved train derailments, and hazardous-material trains derailed or sustained damage 6,643 times! That means, over the past decade, an average of 3.4 derailments occurred *every day*, with 1.82 of them involving hazardous-material trains! Now you understand why this latest incident struggled to trend on social media—when something happens daily, does it still qualify as news? A second cause lies in lobbying by railway and chemical industry capital, which has persistently pressured the federal government to weaken freight safety standards. It’s not that Americans disregard workplace safety—in fact, over the past century or two, the U.S. has developed a comprehensive set of rules and procedures based on experience and hard-learned lessons. For example, on November 30, 2012, a freight train derailed on a bridge crossing Mantua Creek in Paulsboro, New Jersey; seven cars overturned, four plunged into the river, and 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride leaked. Subsequently, hundreds of local residents, first responders, and emergency personnel filed lawsuits against the railroad company and bridge owner, alleging injuries and losses—including cancer diagnoses—following the hazardous chemical release. In response, President Obama signed, in 2013, an executive order specifically aimed at enhancing safety at chemical production facilities and reducing potential risks from hazardous chemicals. In 2014, Obama proposed reforms to improve regulations governing the transport of crude oil and hazardous chemicals. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also issued a series of standards for hazardous-material transport—such as imposing speed limits on hazardous-material trains, requiring volatility testing of transported substances, and mandating safety retrofits for railcars carrying hazardous materials within the past decade. Yet these measures inevitably impacted the profits of railway and chemical corporations: speed limits reduced throughput, while safety retrofits entailed substantial costs—purely added expenses. Consequently, the U.S. chemical industry successfully lobbied the Obama administration to apply these railway safety standards *only* to crude oil transport—exempting other hazardous chemicals. Under the Trump administration, experts recommended replacing conventional air brakes with electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes—a system reportedly capable of reducing stopping distances by up to 60% compared to traditional air brakes. While ECP brakes would significantly enhance safety, they would also raise transportation costs. So, after railway industry firms donated $6 million to Trump’s reelection campaign, Trump scrapped the brake-upgrade mandate. Now, under Biden’s administration, post-pandemic inflation has prompted railway workers to demand higher wages—but Norfolk Southern (the company involved in this accident) flatly refused, triggering a major strike. Unexpectedly, railway companies once again lobbied the Biden administration. To ensure supply-chain continuity, Biden arranged for Democrats in the Senate to pass legislation imposing an inequitable clause upon more than a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers. After Biden signed it into law, any strike would be deemed illegal.

The U.S. Department of Transportation stated that the Ohio chemical train derailment 'may have been caused by overheated wheel bearings.' What is the specific cause? What information deserves attention?

Just over a week later, at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Monday, February 13, an 18-wheeler collided with a train in Texas, killing the truck driver and derailing over a dozen railcars. Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) The highest praise for a railway system is its temporal predictability. Yet in the U.S.—especially within the freight-rail sector—development has veered toward the opposite extreme: minimizing costs. This trend traces back to Hunter Harrison, the late CEO of CSX, who conceived the idea of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) in the last century. Over the past decade, PSR has been widely adopted across U.S. railways. Under this system, freight trains no longer wait for cargo loading; instead, they operate strictly according to fixed timetables. Containerized and general freight are no longer shipped separately but consolidated and dispatched together. This model drastically reduces the number of freight cars and locomotives required for operations—and simultaneously cuts labor costs. According to data from the Presidential Emergency Board, since PSR’s introduction, average U.S. freight train length has grown from 7,000 feet to 9,500 feet (i.e., from 2,100 meters to nearly 2,900 meters), while service frequency has declined by nearly one-third. At the same time, the number of workers employed in freight rail has markedly decreased: over the past six years, Class I railroads have cut 29% of their frontline workforce—roughly 45,000 employees. Those remaining now endure a ‘Dickensian’ work regime—on-call 24/7, with even sick leave difficult to obtain. This directly triggered last year’s nationwide railway workers’ strike. In 2021, Peter DeFazio, then-Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, bluntly stated that PSR is not a policy designed to increase freight volume, improve operations, or reduce emissions—it is purely a financial strategy deployed by investors to boost short-term profits. Reality bears this out: PSR has dramatically improved railway profitability. Since 2004, U.S. railway companies’ profits have surged by 676%, while railway stock prices have soared by 1,250%—far exceeding normal industry growth rates. Every coin has two sides. Behind the rapid financial ascent of railway companies lies inevitable sacrifice—not only in worker welfare, but also in operational safety. Capital behind the Rails According to USA Today, over the past decade, the U.S. has recorded over 5,000 incidents involving hazardous-material spills or leaks during transport—an average of 1.4 per day. The Ohio chemical leak was merely a typical hazardous-material train accident—albeit one with exceptionally large-scale consequences. The derailed freight train in Ohio belonged to Norfolk Southern. A closer look at the company’s shareholder structure reveals that nearly 80% of its equity is held by institutional investors—including Wall Street giants such as Vanguard, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. This pattern holds true across virtually all major U.S. railway companies: large blocks of equity are carved up and controlled by Wall Street, making independent operation nearly impossible. Even Warren Buffett has dipped his toes into the rail industry: his privately held BNSF Railway saw net profits rise by 103.4% over the ten-year period ending in 2021—while revenues grew by only 19%.

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