Union Pacific Rail Road has announced its investing $51.5 million into Wyoming’s railroad infrastructure. $48 million of that is being spent directly on railroad tracks, with the rest going into signal systems and bridges.
The money is part of a regular investment into the company’s railways, with $430 million being spent in Wyoming between 2010 and 2014. Mark Davis is the Union Pacific spokesman and says that money directly affects safety nationwide.
And we were looking at the numbers and it looks like over the last ten years we've seen derailments decrease by 38 percent.
"And what we’ve been able to determine is by heavily investing in your infrastructure, that helps in derailment prevention," says Davis. "And we were looking at the numbers and it looks like over the last ten years we’ve seen derailments decrease by 38 percent."
Derailments of Union Pacific Trains in Wyoming are falling, from 27 in 2008 to just 7 in 2014.