Categories:
Regulation
The data below are for rail accidents, derailments, and collisions from 1975 to 2021. Pothole Pete Buttigieg has claimed that the accident in East Palestine, Ohio is due to deregulation under Trump. Actually, deregulation of railroads happened under Carter in 1980. Notice what happened to accidents and derailments since 1980.
HT2 regular reader Mark Barbieri. He got his data from here.
UPDATE: Check out this excellent analysis by David Kemp and Peter Van Doren at Cato-at-Liberty.
READER COMMENTS
Andrew_FL
Feb 27 2023 at 8:58am
Buttigieg seems to be referring to environmental regulations rather than rail regulations, but there’s no evidence for that, either.
David Henderson
Feb 27 2023 at 11:28am
Good points.
Andre
Feb 27 2023 at 9:48am
To understand what is going on, one needs to check what is happening with train miles as well. Turns out they appear to have (also) dropped by almost half since 1980. (This is just the first source that popped up for me: https://www.railserve.com/stats_records/railroad_route_miles.html)
Accidents appear to have declined along with miles, with nothing particularly unusual about recent history.
David Henderson
Feb 27 2023 at 11:29am
Good point.
Notice that that means, though, that accidents per mile have dropped substantially since 1980.
Bob Bell
Mar 1 2023 at 3:10pm
If I’m reading that Railserve site correctly, it is the total miles of Class 1 track that is declining. That doesn’t speak to the volume of traffic over that track. This site (also via Railserve) lists the freight volume (in ton-miles) per year: https://www.railserve.com/stats_records/freight_railroad_traffic_volumes.html
The freight volume is growing, even as the number of accidents declines, implying that rail shipping is safer than ever.
Mike Turn
Mar 1 2023 at 3:19pm
However, those train milages did not drop precipitously like the train derailments did after 1980. The train mileages have had a gradual decrease, not a sudden one, like the derailments did after 1980.
Frank Castelvecchi
Mar 1 2023 at 4:37pm
The article you reference is the route miles of Class I railroads, much of what was taken over by smaller railroads. For considering safety you should consider how many ton-miles of freight was carried which has grown from 932 billion in 1980 to 1851 in 2014. https://www.railserve.com/stats_records/freight_railroad_traffic_volumes.html
Monte
Feb 27 2023 at 11:40am
Thank you for providing this information, Dr. Henderson. We should care about whether or not the data shows derailments have declined with deregulation, or the fact that this derailment had nothing to do with the regulations rolled back by Trump. But data and facts simply don’t matter in politics. It’s like J. K. Galbraith said:
David Henderson
Feb 27 2023 at 4:44pm
I love that quote from Galbraith. Charley Hooper and I use it in our book, Making Great Decisions in Business and Life.
David Seltzer
Feb 27 2023 at 6:39pm
David, It seems even railroad companies have budget constraints. If regulations have a net cost over their benefits, then there is less available investment in better rail technology. If that is the case, then deregulating means more money to insure greater safety through newer and better technology. Of course I could be wrong.
National Jester
Mar 1 2023 at 4:42pm
I have always loved the concept of personal responsibility. Be that for an actual person or a corporation. This accident demonstrates the potential cost of an accident. I suspect that the bean counters will look at the numbers on this one and make some adjustments. It might be increasing the price to transport hazardous materials or require special cars. Special (higher cost) insurance could also be in the mix. I’m fine with that. The point is that in a free market, investors will want to be shielded from liability and significant losses. When you rely on the government, you get C students, at best.
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