The East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment has led to more scrutiny of railroad safety practices.
Norfolk Southern Corp. and its rivals said Thursday they have agreed to join a federal system that lets employees confidentially report close calls, a program the biggest freight railroads had refused to join for years.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday had asked the chief executives of the seven so-called Class 1 railroads— Union Pacific Corp., Norfolk Southern, BNSF Railway, CSX Corp., Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., Canadian National Railway Co. and Kansas City Southern—to join the Federal Railroad Administration’s close-call reporting system.