National Transportation Safety Board launches rail safety campaign

Jane Miller, Chicago Tribune on Sep 21, 2026

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CHICAGO — Standing in Chicago Union Station on Monday, authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board announced the launch of a national railroad safety campaign geared towards protecting railworkers’ lives and safety.

“There’s no better place to launch this campaign than Chicago, the nation’s rail capital,” said NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy.

The NTSB, an independent federal agency that investigates the cause of transit accidents, said they also need the help of the Federal Railroad Administration to execute their guidelines. Homendy said that 95 safety recommendations by her organization have not yet been implemented by the FRA.

“Forty percent of those were designated by the board unanimously as unacceptable actions,” Homendy said.

“To be fair, the FRA and the railroads have implemented hundreds of NTSB recommendations since the creation of the NTSB in 1967, all of which have made rail transportation safe,” she added. “But there’s more we can do, must do, to save lives.”

When the Tribune reached out to the FRA, a representative of the agency explained that of the 95 recommendations, 44 of those had been returned to the NTSB with comments and were pending a response. The FRA hopes to send the rest within the next month or so.

Since 2020, 54 rail workers have lost their lives on the job, and nearly 19,000 others were injured, Homendy said.

“The fact is, across our investigation, we continue to see recurring patterns,” Homendy said. “They aren’t simply findings in a report, they’re warnings. And if we don’t act on those warnings, we know what will happen next.”

“We chose to launch this from Chicago because it is the rail mecca, where the East meets the West in the U.S.,” Homendy said. “It is a major hub where things can go wrong, and you want to make sure that the proper protections are in place for not just workers in the communities, but also passengers.”

Two of the 27 rail accidents that the agency is currently investigating are located in Illinois, Homendy said.

The first incident took place in Browns in July of 2025, when 24 train cars derailed, according to the NTSB. Two Northern Suffolk rail crew members were injured and several tanks of hazardous materials were released. The second incident took place in Elgin in October of 2025, according to the NTSB. A landscaping vehicle was struck by a Union Pacific Railroad train, resulting in the death of a motorist and the injury of two passengers.

During the announcement, the NTSB particularly asked for more protection for workers when performing train shoving movements, which is when a locomotive pushes rail cars while a worker ensures the track ahead is clear.

Their recommendations asked railroads to prohibit the practice of allowing workers to perform these movements when riding the lead rail car, as workers can more easily fall, be thrown from equipment, or crushed, said NTSB board member Tom Chapman.

“Since October 2020, the NTSB has investigated 18 accidents involving workers riding rail equipment during shoving movements,” said Chapman.

Fourteen workers were killed and four others were seriously injured as a result of these accidents, Chapman said.

“Nowhere else in transportation would this be accepted,” said Chapman.

The NTSB planned, according to Homendy, to spend the rest of Monday meeting with Amtrak officials and observing operations at The Belt Railway Company of Chicago.

Beyond Chicago, over the coming weeks and months, Homendy said that the NCSB will be in communities “across America” highlighting the rail safety lessons from their investigations.

“This is only the beginning,” Homendy said.

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