ICLE Scholar Warns Railway Safety Act Could Undercut Freight-Rail Safety Progress
PORTLAND, Ore. (May 21, 2026) — Following today’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vote to advance the Railway Safety Act as part of the five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) is highlighting recent research questioning both the bill’s approach and its likely effectiveness.
In “The Railway Safety Act Goes Off Track,” ICLE Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout argues the legislation responds to a real tragedy, but targets a problem that has been steadily shrinking.
Over the past two decades, train accident rates per million train-miles have fallen more than 38%. Hazardous-materials train accident rates are down at least 61%, while employee on-duty fatalities reached a record low in 2023. Stout notes that much of that progress came through voluntary, industry-led investment under the current regulatory framework.
Since the East Palestine, Ohio derailment, freight railroads have added roughly 1,000 wayside detectors, lowered bearing-temperature alert thresholds, expanded predictive analytics, and increased first-responder access to real-time railcar data—all within months of the February 2023 accident.
“The freight-rail industry is becoming safer,” Stout said following today’s hearing. “The challenge is to sustain and accelerate that progress, not respond reflexively to high-profile incidents with mandates that could do the opposite—imposing billions in certain costs while delivering uncertain and unquantified benefits.”
Stout also warns the legislation could lock in current-generation technology, impose significant compliance costs on the safest freight-rail system in U.S. history, and sidestep the cost-benefit analysis that typically governs federal rulemaking.
To arrange an interview with Stout, contact Jim Fellinger at [email protected]. Download the full report here.
About ICLE
The International Center for Law & Economics is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center working with a roster of more than one hundred academic affiliates and research centers from around the globe. ICLE scholars promote the use of law and economics methodologies to inform public policy debates.