BNSF Railway says that it has made a significant investment in safety and technical training for employees and workplace safety is trending for the better.

According to a 2013 BNSF report, the railway company that year had an injury frequency rate of 1.08 per 200,000 work hours or 100 employees who work full-time. This was a 3 percent decrease from 2012, the report shows.

The company points out that U.S. railroads have some of the lowest injury and accident rates in the transportation industry, and that the accident rate is significantly lower than that for the trucking industry.

BNSF says it fosters a “culture that makes safety our highest priority and provides continuous self-examination as to the effectiveness of our safety process and performance.”

BNSF has acknowledged that it modified operations at Whitefish in September, a move that spurred local rail employees to speak up about safety concerns.

BNSF Railway spokesman Matt Jones said those changes will in no way compromise safety.

“Hours-of-service limits have not changed,” Jones said. “Rules regarding the maximum number of hours worked and the required amount of rest are set by the Federal Railroad Administration. The run lengths haven’t changed and there isn’t any aspect of the new arrangement that will lead to longer periods of time on duty.”

Amy McBeth, director of public affairs for BNSF, wrote in a Nov. 5 opinion piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the railway has a goal to move all commodities as safely as possible. McBeth touched on safety issues related to trains carrying crude oil in response to the assertion, she said, that railroads are only doing the minimum for oil-train safety.   

“Safety is paramount at BNSF; our record reflects it. Since 2000, derailments are down more than 40 percent, and we’ve reduced employee injuries significantly,” McBeth writes.

She said 2014 was the railway’s best year on record for safety, a trend that she said continues this year.

“Our goal is to move every carload safely, no matter the commodity or the route traveled,” she said.