September 11, 2023 - freightwaves.com - 

FRA Administrator questions railroad if recent furloughs had role in defects found during focused inspections.

Western U.S. Class 1 railroad Union Pacific expects to respond swiftly to recent remarks by the head of the Federal Railroad Administration that UP has made "poor" efforts to ensure the safety of its rolling stock, including using locomotives with safety defects and being unwilling to address those defects.

UP’s actions are in response to a letter that FRA Administrator Amit Bose sent Friday to UP CEO Jim Vena, President Beth Whited and Executive Vice President of Operations Eric Gehringer on safety defects found during focused inspections in July and August. 

The letter also asked whether recent furloughs had any impact on safety at UP.

“I am writing this letter to express serious concern about specific and significant risk to rail safety on the Union Pacific (UP). The compliance of the rolling stock (freight cars and locomotives) on the UP network is poor and UP was unwilling or unable to take steps to improve the condition of their equipment,” the letter said.

UP (NYSE: UNP) told FreightWaves that it takes safety seriously and will respond to FRA this week.

Read more: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/union-pacific-expects-to-respond-quickly-to-safety-concerns-raised-by-fra

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