The Association of American Railroads (AAR) made the decision to end the award presentation.
[4] Union Pacific Railroad (UP), in particular, was shown to have suppressed reporting of some accidents in the early 1970s, leading to their disqualification and withdrawal from consideration for the award over several years.
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) General Chairman Paul Beard created the "Harassment Award" as a satire of the Harriman Awards to raise awareness of management practices that bred intimidation and disciplinary actions against reporting accidents.
[7] This practice ended in the 1970s when Santa Fe Railroad was selected as the gold medal recipient for several consecutive years.
Railroad companies are grouped into one of four categories: Historically, the award recipients were notified in May of the year following the statistics calculation with the presentation ceremony in September or October.