Honestly, if you live anywhere near a rail line in Illinois, you’ve probably felt that low-frequency rumble in your chest as a mile-long freight train rolls through town. It’s part of the landscape here. But lately, that rumble has started to feel a bit more ominous. Between the 2024 chaos in Matteson and the high-stakes wreckage near Browns in the summer of 2025, the phrase train derailment in Illinois has shifted from a rare headline to a recurring nightmare for local commuters and families.
Illinois is basically the rail hub of North America. Chicago alone is the only place on the continent where all six Class I railroads meet. That’s a lot of steel moving at high speeds. When things go wrong, they go wrong in a big way.
The Browns Incident: A Close Call with Molten Sulfur
On July 18, 2025, a Norfolk Southern freight train (NS-167) was moving through Edwards County near the tiny town of Browns. It was a hot Friday, about 88 degrees. Everything seemed routine until the train hit a spring switch at milepost 139.90W.
Suddenly, 24 cars jumped the tracks.
It wasn't just a pile of metal. The derailed cars slammed into another Norfolk Southern train (NS-33K) that was just sitting stationary on a siding. This wasn't just a "fender bender." Two crew members on the parked train were injured. One engineer trainee had to be airlifted to a trauma center after molten sulfur—which is essentially liquid fire—splashed onto him.
What the NTSB found
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, docketed as RRD25FR019, pointed to a terrifyingly simple timeline. A signal maintainer had finished working on that specific spring switch just 40 minutes before the train arrived. NS-167 was the very first train to pass over it after the maintenance.
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Investigators are now looking hard at how the signals and maintenance teams talk to each other. Or, more accurately, how they don't.
The Matteson Evacuation: Why Residents Ran
Go back a year to June 2024. Residents in Matteson, a suburb south of Chicago, woke up to a mandatory evacuation order. A Canadian National (CN) train had derailed near 217th and Main Street.
This one felt different.
People reported hearing a sound much louder and longer than the usual rail clatter. About 25 cars were off the tracks, and two of them were leaking liquefied petroleum gas. The "vent and burn" tactics used in places like East Palestine, Ohio, were fresh in everyone’s minds, and the fear in Matteson was palpable.
Luckily, the leak was contained. But for several hours, a one-mile radius was turned into a ghost town. It’s these kinds of events that make you realize how thin the line is between a normal Thursday and a hazmat disaster.
Why Does Illinois Have So Many Accidents?
You might think we’re just unlucky. But the numbers tell a different story. In 2023, Illinois ranked sixth in the nation for railroad incidents. We had 102 collisions that year alone.
Cook County is actually the number one spot in the entire U.S. for highway-rail accidents.
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- Human Error: It's still the biggest factor. Fatigue is a massive issue. Many freight crews work "on-call," meaning they don't have a set schedule and often operate on 3 or 4 hours of sleep.
- Track Defects: The NTSB recently slammed BNSF for missing defects in tracks because inspectors were overloaded with work.
- Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR): This is a fancy industry term for "running longer trains with fewer people." When a train is two miles long, the physics of stopping it or managing a mechanical failure becomes exponentially harder.
The Fight for Safer Rails in 2026
Right now, there's a huge push in the 119th Congress to pass the Railway Safety Act of 2025. It’s basically a response to the fact that while derailments are technically down since the early 2000s, the severity of the spills is getting worse.
States like Illinois are trying to take matters into their own hands. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has been breathing down the necks of rail carriers to upgrade grade crossings. You might have noticed more "four-quadrant" gates—the ones that block both sides of the road so you can't zigzag around them.
What You Should Actually Do
If you live in a "rail town" like Aurora, Joliet, or Decatur, don't just ignore the tracks.
1. Know the "Blue Sign" Rule
Every single railroad crossing has a small blue sign with an emergency phone number and a USDOT crossing number (usually six digits and a letter). If you see a stalled car or a weird gap in the rail, call that number first. It goes straight to the railroad dispatchers who can stop the trains. Calling 911 is good, but calling the blue sign number is faster for stopping a locomotive.
2. Watch the "Defect Detectors"
If you’re a rail enthusiast or just a curious neighbor, listen for the automated voices on scanner apps. These "wayside detectors" check for hot bearings. If a detector in your town starts flagging "Hot Box" alerts frequently, it’s a sign the equipment on that line is struggling.
3. Demand Two-Person Crews
The rail industry has been lobbying to move to one-person crews to save money. Most safety experts agree this is a terrible idea. If a train derailment in Illinois happens in a rural area, you need at least two people to handle the initial emergency response and separate the cars to allow fire trucks through.
The reality is that rail is still the most efficient way to move goods. We need it. But as the 2025 Browns accident showed us, we’re often just one "miscommunication" away from a catastrophe.
Stay alert. If a crossing gate is down and no train is coming, don't play hero. Turn around. That extra five minutes isn't worth a 6,000-ton collision.
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Next Steps for Safety:
Check the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) safety map for your specific county to see the accident history of tracks near your home. You can also sign up for local "CodeRED" or "Wireless Emergency Alerts" which are the primary ways Illinois officials notify residents of a hazmat evacuation during a derailment.