NEWS

Federal order ‘lowers’ speed of oil trains

Todd Hill
Reporter

BUCYRUS – An emergency order on oil train safety that came down Friday from the U.S. Department of Transportation isn’t likely to have much impact on the increased numbers of tank cars coming through Bucyrus.

The new order requires trains hauling crude oil and other flammable substances to slow down to 40 mph in urban areas. However, the average speed limit of trains traveling in Bucyrus is 25 mph, and plans are under way to raise it – to 40 mph.

Presently, trains on the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern line, many of them carrying oil, creep along at about 10 mph as they move from west to east through town, but officials with the Norfolk & Southern Railway say trains should be able be travel at speeds up to 40 mph on the line, including inside Bucyrus city limits, once various track upgrades are finished.

The new order applies to both older DOT-111 rail cars as well as the newer CPC-1232 cars now in use. Of the four major oil train derailments that have occurred so far this year – two in Ontario, Canada; one in Illinois, and one in West Virginia involving a train that very well could have earlier passed through Bucyrus — all involved the 1232 cars, yet still resulted in huge fireballs.

Just last week, the National Transportation Safety Board urged the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to adopt four safety recommendations related to oil trains – equip all cars with thermal protection systems, with pressure relief devices as well, replace or retrofit older cars with the new technology, and set up a reporting system on the upgrades that’s available to the public.

The proposal is under review at the White House.

“President Obama has consistently blocked attempts to improve our nation’s energy transportation system. He vetoed a bill that would have created jobs and allowed for safer, more reliable energy transportation through the Keystone pipeline,” Darin Miller, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, said.

“And the Obama administration is dragging its feet on issuing regulations on energy transportation that members of both parties have requested. This is a clear instance where inaction has the potential to harm Ohioans, and this administration’s failure to act is inexcusable.”

Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser recently sent letters to Jordan, U.S. senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown and other elected officials asking them to find ways to make transport of crude via rail safer, including the lowering of speed limits. He also sought their support for an extension of the Keystone pipeline system, which is already transporting oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico although an energy boom in the Dakotas has stretched its capacity.

“I share the mayor’s concerns and support public and private efforts to modernize America’s rail tank car fleet. While it is important that the administration finalize a practical rule as quickly as possible, that is only half the solution,” Sen. Portman, R-Ohio, said.

“The federal government also needs to assist the private sector in alleviating the constrained pipeline capacity that is contributing to the increased rail traffic through Bucyrus. We can do that by building the Keystone XL pipeline. I voted in favor of bipartisan legislation to do just that earlier this year.”

In late March, Brown and five other Democratic senators wrote to the Office of Management and Budget urging the immediate finalization of new safety standards for tank cars.

“Congress mandated that a rule be finalized by January of 2015, a deadline that has already been missed. Further delays are simply unacceptable given how dangerous these outdated cars are,” Brown wrote.

“They pose an alarming risk to the communities we represent, and continued derailments and subsequent explosions throughout the United States and Canada involving these cars demonstrate that danger clearly and plainly.”

The emergency order issued Friday from the U.S. Department of Transportation did not address the design of tank cars.

Thermal protection systems, recommended by the NTSB, are designed to limit heat flux to the containers when exposed to fire, keeping the temperature of their contents from rising and the vapor pressure from increasing. That in turn limits the amount of material that has to be evacuated in the event of a derailment through a pressure-relief device.

Thill3@gannett.com

419-563-9225

@ToddHillMNJ