Union Pacific paints rail sides white to cut heat-driven derailments

Union Pacific has started spraying white paint on both sides of its steel rails in high-heat regions to counter a hazard called thermal misalignment — when rails expand in extreme heat and, with nowhere to go, buckle sideways. The reflective coating drops rail surface temperature by roughly 20 degrees, meaningfully lowering the odds of the track shifting. The technique borrows from European rail practice and U.S. highway striping methods, and according to chief safety officer Rod Doerr, no other U.S. railroad currently does it.

The paint is a supplementary measure rather than a replacement for the railroad’s core defenses — rail anchors, fasteners, and routine maintenance and inspection still do the heavy lifting across the 32,000-mile network. Targeted deployment began last year in the hottest areas. Union Pacific frames the effort as one piece of a layered safety strategy that it credits with a record-low derailment incident rate in 2025, a 19% year-over-year improvement.

Beyond the engineering, the company is treating the initiative as a cultural signal — evidence of a willingness to question long-standing assumptions and adopt low-cost, proven ideas from other industries. It’s a reminder that some of the most effective infrastructure safety gains come not from novel technology but from cheap, practical fixes that no one had bothered to try.