Norfolk Southern sparked renewed concerns about flaws being missed during railcar inspections when it told employees this week they should spend no more than a minute looking at each car. But the railroad said the rule simply reflects the current industry standard, and there are no plans for disciplining employees for missing that one-minute target.
Rail unions have been raising the alarm for several years now about inspections being rushed across the industry in the wake of the railroads eliminating one-third of all the jobs as they adopted the current lean operating model that has become the standard.
