One of the nation’s largest freight railroads will participate in a federal pilot program for workers to confidentially report safety issues.

BNSF Railway said Thursday that 650 of its train dispatchers will participate in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System for one year, allowing the company to avoid disciplinary action for unsafe events that are reported and workers to avoid retribution.

What You Need To Know

  • BNSF Railway will join the Federal Railroad Administration's Confidential Close Call Reporting System

  • The pilot program allows workers to confidentially report safety issues and companies to avoid disciplinary action for safety failures

  • BNSF is the largest railway to join the program

  • Norfolk Southern and 28 other passenger and freight railroads are participating

“BNSF is committed to improving safety on our railroad and is proud to have reached an agreement to voluntarily participate,” BNSF President and CEO Katie Farmer said in a statement.

The close-call program allows train dispatchers to confidentially report unsafe practices, behaviors or situations that raise safety concerns using a website or written form. The concerns will be reported to NASA, which is operating as an independent third party. 

NASA will anonymize the reports it receives and share them with a review team compromised of representatives from the American Train Dispatchers Association, BNSF and the FRA. The team will then develop recommendations for how to improve railroad safety.

“We can all agree that addressing safety concerns before they cause a reportable accident, injury or death is commonsense,” FRA Administrator Amit Bose said in a statement.

“The FRA is pleased that ATDA and BNSF came together to join the Confidential Close Call Reporting System, a vital safety program, and we are confident that providing opportunities for dispatchers to share their experiences will have real results on rail safety.”

There are almost 1,200 train derailments across the country every year, according to the FRA, most of them inside rail yards. The majority of derailments are due to human error and track defects.

The confidential reporting system comes 14 months after 38 Norfolk Southern Railway freight cars carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. In addition to BNSF, Norfolk Southern and 28 other passenger and freight railroads are participating in the pilot.

BNSF is the first of 7 North American Class I railroad to join the program. The second most profitable freight railroad in the U.S., BNSF’s revenue last year was $23.4 billion.