The railroad says these sheds, or "portals," are an example of how it has changed the way safety fits into its business model since. The Atlanta company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the task, from more detectors and inspection technology to a retooling of its training. It's all to instill what it calls a new safety culture at the nearly 200-year-old company, which, before the the derailment, had the fastest-growing accident rate in the industry. The February 2023 derailment was a wake-up call for Norfolk Southern and the industry. But for some, the incident — which a new lawsuit alleges caused a half-dozen deaths because of the subsequent environmental disaster — sadly wasn't a surprise. "All of rail labor was sounding the alarm for everybody that something bad was inevitable, and there it was," said Jared Cassity, chief of safety at the SMART Transportation Division union, Norfolk Southern's largest.