What Union Pacific and the media aren’t telling you about the Baker, CA, train derailment

This Feb., Norfolk Southern’s train derailment catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio dragged the decrepit state of the US rail system into the national spotlight. A rash of other railroad catastrophes in recent weeks has only piled on questions about why and how the railroads have become so dangerous. With over 1,000 train derailments per year, the rate and net occurrence of rail disasters in the US far exceeds that of other wealthy countries. While the attention of the mainstream media and general public may be new, the issue of rail accidents and safety has been slowly simmering for years—and railroad workers’ unions have long been at the forefront of the struggle to fix this problem. TRNN Associate Editor Mel Buer speaks with Michael Paul Lindsay, a locomotive engineer, Railroad Workers United organizer, and 17-year employee of Union Pacific about the state of US railroads, the link between train derailments and rail carriers’ profit-seeking behavior, and what unions are trying to do about it.