Federal inspectors said they found an alarming number of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world’s largest railyard in western Nebraska this summer, and the railroad was reluctant to fix the problems.
Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose wrote a letter to UP’s top three executives Sept. 8 expressing his concern that the defects represent a “significant risk to rail safety “ on the Union Pacific railroad.
Bose said the 19.93% defect rate on railcars and the 72.69% rate for locomotives that inspectors found in July and August are both twice the national average. But the letter didn’t detail what kind of defects inspectors found in the Bailey Yard in North Platte, and there are myriad federal rules.
