By Michael Bartlett on January 30th, 2026 in FELA
Class I freight railroads have cut workforce levels sharply in recent years, even as traffic levels have not declined proportionately. Between 2016 and 2022, Union Pacific Railroad's workforce dropped nearly 29%, from approximately 37,500 to 26,700 employees, even though freight traffic decreased by only around 1%.
This staffing reduction coincided with wider industry job cuts tied to operational strategies such as Precision Scheduled Railroading, which prioritize fewer staff and longer trains. This means there aren't enough trained employees to handle everyday operations, maintenance work, and critical safety functions. Both regulators and lawmakers see this as a safety problem, and injured railroad workers can use chronic understaffing as evidence of employer negligence when filing FELA claims.
A 2025 report from the International Transport Workers' Federation, a federation of rail unions representing workers across multiple countries, including the United States, found that understaffing was cited as the number one cause of occupational health and safety risks by railroad worker representatives:
This aligns with widely accepted occupational safety principles: when fewer workers must absorb the workload for a railroad's scheduled tasks, fatigue increases, vigilance drops, and mistakes become more likely. These conditions are well known to set the stage for accidents.
When there aren't enough employees for the work that needs doing, those left often work additional overtime, extended days, or split shifts, all leading to fatigue. Fatigue is well known as a factor in human error, which causes many railroad accidents. Studies on railroad personnel indicate that extended working hours, demanding workloads, overnight shifts, and lack of proper rest are major contributors to fatigue in crews and critical safety staff.
When there aren't enough staff members, track inspections, equipment checks, and maintenance often happen less frequently or get rushed. The Federal Railroad Administration and safety advocates link these issues with derailments and catastrophic failures. The FRA has noted that if a railroad does not have enough staff to carry out inspections and emergent demands, it will struggle to meet safety requirements and place undue burden on existing personnel.
When there aren't enough experienced workers, railroads may cut short or rush training for new employees. Federal testimony has linked this to more safety incidents and crews being less able to spot hazards. When fewer employees are available to deal with problems, handle defects, or pause operations for complete safety reviews, the pressure becomes keeping trains moving rather than ensuring safety.
Under FELA, a railroad owes employees a duty to provide a reasonably safe workplace. That duty is violated when the employer's actions or decisions, including staffing policies, contribute to unsafe conditions that cause injury. The negligence standard in FELA does not require sole causation. It requires that the employer's negligence played any part, even a small one, in the harm.
Chronic understaffing creates conditions that courts look at when deciding FELA negligence claims. When railroads don't have enough crew members or supervisors, remaining workers end up working longer hours with greater mental and physical demands, which increases the chance of mistakes.
Safety procedures start getting cut short, like skipping thorough inspections, not properly supervising new or exhausted workers, and rushing through training due to time pressures. These situations can demonstrate that the employer didn't provide reasonable care, especially if a gap directly caused an injury or accident.
Federal railroad safety regulations, including track inspection standards, presume that a railroad has adequate personnel to meet those standards. When a railroad knowingly operates with too few staff and doesn't keep up with inspection and maintenance schedules, that can serve as evidence of negligent practices.
Worker representatives have repeatedly told federal hearings that staffing cuts, particularly when combined with heavier workloads, lead to more equipment failures, delayed maintenance, rushed safety inspections, and higher risks of derailments and worker injuries. Courts consider all of these factors when analyzing causation in FELA cases.
A recent engineering study found that human error remains a major factor in U.S. rail accidents, accounting for a significant share of derailments and collisions in analyses of thousands of incidents. Errors tied to understaffing and fatigue are common precursors in accident investigations because fatigued workers are slower to detect safety hazards, compromised crews may misinterpret or overlook signals, and reduced maintenance oversight increases equipment defects.
If you got injured while working for an understaffed railroad, you'll need documentation to show how staffing levels played a role in your accident. This could include work schedules that demonstrate excessive hours, incident reports showing inspection or maintenance failures, statements from coworkers about workload pressures, and proof that the railroad was aware of staffing problems but failed to fix them.
ELG Law has been representing injured workers for more than 35 years. If you believe understaffing contributed to your injury, we can look into whether your employer's staffing decisions created unsafe conditions that led to your harm. Contact us for a free consultation about your FELA claim.