‘I’m terribly sorry,’ Norfolk Southern CEO tells senators

Norfolk Southern

CEO Alan Shaw said he is “terribly sorry” for his company’s toxic derailment disaster in

East Palestine, Ohio, in testimony Thursday before a U.S. Senate committee, while lawmakers called out the company for its safety practices and its lack of transparency after the wreck.

Senators also raised growing concerns about a string of Norfolk Southern derailments in the weeks since since the Feb. 3 crash, including a derailment in Alabama on Thursday morning, just hours before the hearing.

Shaw faced tough questioning from the Committee on Environment and Public Works about the Atlantabased railroad’s actions and response to the East Palestine derailment. More than three dozen railcars jumped the tracks, including 11 carrying hazardous materials, which released toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water and left residents fearful and uncertain about the longterm impact.

“We’re going to be there for as long as it takes to help East Palestine thrive and recover,” Shaw said.

The Ohio crash has captured national attention and triggered a bipartisan effort to reform rail safety, while putting Norfolk Southern, a company not accustomed to being in the spotlight, under intense scrutiny.

The company now faces lawsuits, a special investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board into its broader safety practices and an order by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up hazardous materials from the site or pay triple damages.

“Your company will pay for the harm that it has caused,” committee ranking member Sen. Shelley Capito, R-west Virginia, told Shaw.

Capito said EPA’S communications about risks to the public also “fell short.”

“The public deserved a better level of transparency and much, much sooner,” she said.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-delaware, the committee chairman, criticized Norfolk Southern’s lack of transparency early in the response.