Rail securityNew safety rules for crude oil shipments by rail criticized by both sides

Regulators with the Department of Transportation (DOT) last Friday unveiled new rules for transporting crude oil by rail. The measures are expected to improve rail safety and reduce the risk of oil train accidents, but both the railway industry and public safety advocates have already issued criticism. Lawmakers representing states with oil trains traffic say the regulations do not go far enough in protecting the public, while railway representatives say the rules would be costly and result in few safety benefits.

The new measures create a new standard, “high-hazard flammable trains,” defined as “a continuous block of twenty or more tank cars loaded with flammable liquid or thirty-five or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid dispersed through a train.” Oil trains with as many as 120 cars have become common sights in Philadelphia, Albany, and Chicago as they move crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota to east coast refineries.

According to the New York Times, oil train accidents have increased with the growth of Bakken region oil production, highlighting the hazards of shipping large amounts of potentially explosive material via rail. So far this year, there have been four explosions and spills in the United States and one in Canada. In July 2013, forty-seven people died in Canada after a runaway oil train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, destroying much of the city’s downtown.

The new regulations introduce a safer tank car model for oil and ethanol shipments, and mandate the use of electronically controlled brakes. The oldest tank cars used in oil train shipments, DOT-111s, will be replaced within three years with DOT-117s, which have thicker shells and better fire protection. A newer generation of tank cars, CPC-1232s, will have to be retired or refitted to meet the standards of the DOT-117s, by 2020.

Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said the new rules gave railroads too much time to remove older tank cars from service. “The good news is that the standards are predictable, but the bad news is that the phaseout time is too lenient,” he said. Schumer is one of seven senators who introduced a bill that seeks to fine railroad companies for transporting crude oil via old tank cars. The fee would begin at $175 and increase to $1,400 per car by 2018.