The FRA said an analysis revealed several common themes among recent crashes, including that each one had 125 cars or more, and an empty car was the first to derail in all cases.

Meanwhile, it emerged that a team of government officials became sick while investigating the health effects of the toxic train derailment, when they visited the Ohio site earlier this month.

The embattled company has struggled with major inefficiencies that have led to traffic being redirected to ports outside South Africa.

Oberman led the transportation board in approving the $31 billion merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, which will have steep repercussions for Chicago-area communities, citing safety as one of the chief reasons.

Federal data shows the number of derailments among major freight railroads has fallen sharply since 2000 but that the rate of derailments for some railroads has increased in more recent years. 

Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont asked Norfolk Southern's chief executive officer Alan Shaw whether the rail company would pause the activity until it had fulfilled the commitments made to residents at the crash site.

Hinrichs said his desire to shake things up at 195-year-old CSX is about capturing the lost opportunity to increase shipments over the past decade and a half.

For decades, the Justice Department and FTC have taken the lead on competition issues, but a Presidential executive order called on industry regulators to engage in independent oversight of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

The new network could draw traffic away from U.S. West Coast ports to gateways in Canada and Mexico, and tens of thousands of shipments away from trucks, an environmental selling point for the combination.

“The fallout from this highly preventable accident is going to reverberate through Ohio for many years to come,” said Attorney General Dave Yost.