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Time to ‘aggressively phase out’ old, unsafe tank cars carrying oil, says CN
Calgary Herald ^ | JANUARY 13, 2014 | BRUCE CHEADLE

Posted on 01/14/2014 11:07:32 AM PST by thackney

The railway industry wants to “aggressively phase out” older model tank cars that have been implicated in several recent accidents, the head of CN Rail’s safety division told an industry forum Monday.

But the consensus at the day-long workshop was that there’s no quick fix for a decades-old problem that has almost 80,000 sub-standard DOT-111 tank cars carrying flammable liquids on North American tracks.

And whatever the solution, the cost eventually will be borne by consumers.

Sam Berrada, director general of safety and occupational health services for CN, told an overflow crowd of industry types, regulators, lobbyists and local first responders that railways “will continue to push aggressively” for safer, stronger tank cars.

A derailment and fire involving a CN train in northwestern New Brunswick last week has renewed calls for greater safety in the booming oil-by-rail trade, which became an international cause following last summer’s deadly derailment and fire in Lac-Megantic, Que.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt responded on the weekend by promising the government will formalize the standard for new tank car construction adopted by the rail industry in October 2011.

“Our government’s new tougher standards to the DOT-111 tank cars are part of our commitment to making the rail sector safer,” spokesman Remi Moreau said in an email Monday.

But the government’s announced standards are not new and not tougher — they simply match those already voluntarily adopted by industry more than two years ago.

The forum heard from CN’s Berrada and others that even better cars than the post-2011 model might be in order, although Berrada did praise the performance of three post-2011 cars involved in the New Brunswick derailment.

Moves to date, however, don’t even begin to address the vast majority of older rolling stock.

Governments in Canada and the United States have been reluctant to deal with the huge number of older DOT-111s, in part because of the cost and logistics of an overhaul.

Moreau said Raitt has asked an advisory council “to report back to the minister on additional enhancements and recommendations with respect to the DOT-111.”

Raitt will be working on the standards with her U.S. counterpart, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Moreau added.

An official with the Canadian Transportation Agency also told the forum the government is considering the idea of a rail industry disaster fund, similar to the fund financed by the shipping industry for environmental clean-ups at sea.

Monday’s forum heard that out of 335,000 tank cars of all types in use in North America, 228,000 are the model known as DOT-111. About 92,000 DOT-111s are used to carry flammable liquids, and only 14,000 of those are the new, stronger cars built after October 2011.

That means 78,000 older DOT-111s remain the workhorse of the oil-by-rail boom.

“You can’t just snap your fingers and change the fleet overnight,” Bob Ballantyne, a career railway man who now works for the Freight Management Association of Canada, said in an interview.

Ballantyne told the forum that railway companies collectively own fewer than 700 tank cars (CN Rail owns just 20), while eight leasing companies own more than 243,000 tankers and shippers own another 79,000.

Retrofitting older cars can cost more than $70,000 each, while new tank cars cost well over $100,000.

“It is, I think, inevitable that safety will be enhanced and there will be increased costs for consignors, consignees, carriers, governments and the general public,” said Ballantyne. “How these increased costs will be allocated across the supply chain remains to be seen.”

Malcolm Cairns, the past president of the Canadian Transportation Research Forum, predicts government intervention will ultimately be necessary to get everyone onboard the pricey make-over of the North American fleet.

Marc Garneau, the Liberal international trade critic, wonders what the government is waiting for.

“There’s no question the responsible thing to do for the government of Canada is to make sure, if these DOT-111 tankers are going to continue, that they have to be upgraded,” Garneau said in an interview.

“Something has to be done because of what we’ve seen in the past six months and what can potentially occur as the amount of oil (being shipped) continues to increase. It’s just too dangerous.”

NDP Transport critic Olivia Chow issued a press release blasting the Conservatives, claiming the government is “recklessly backtracking” on emergency rules imposed last summer after the Lac-Megantic crash, while failing to move on the tank car safety issue.

“Keeping citizens safe is a core responsibility of any government,” Chow said in the release.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Canada; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dot111; energy; oil; rail; train
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1 posted on 01/14/2014 11:07:32 AM PST by thackney
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To: thackney

Use more buffer cars.


2 posted on 01/14/2014 11:10:29 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: thackney

Hmm. A bone thrown to Carl Icahn? (He owns ACF.)


3 posted on 01/14/2014 11:11:51 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Time to build a pipeline


4 posted on 01/14/2014 11:12:18 AM PST by thorvaldr
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To: thackney

5 posted on 01/14/2014 11:15:50 AM PST by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
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To: thackney

Or, we could construct a safer alternative than rail transport - perhaps, oh, I don’t know, a pipeline?


6 posted on 01/14/2014 11:16:03 AM PST by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th (and 17th))
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To: WayneS

A transporter is their dream.


7 posted on 01/14/2014 11:16:53 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: WayneS

That will not make Warren Buffett very happy.


8 posted on 01/14/2014 11:17:00 AM PST by VRWCarea51
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To: thackney

I’ll wager that by the end of 2014, more people will be dead as a result of ObamaCare than have died from train crashes during the entire existence of the DOT 111 cars.


9 posted on 01/14/2014 11:17:46 AM PST by Balding_Eagle (Over production, one of the top 5 worries for the American Farmer every year.)
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To: thackney
80,000 tanks * 100,000 (Cost of new) = $8,000,000,000.

$2 billion a year for 4 years. Ought to do it.

Then another $2 billion a year for 4 more years to replace the defective tanks we bought from China during the first 4 years, because we are too stupid to buy American.

10 posted on 01/14/2014 11:18:33 AM PST by DannyTN (A>)
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To: thorvaldr

No pipeline is going to be built while Buffett is still alive and owning BNSF.

You think its an accident that Keystone wasn’t built?


11 posted on 01/14/2014 11:18:44 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: thackney

What’s the cost of this vs. a pipeline?


12 posted on 01/14/2014 11:20:08 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Olog-hai
Warren Buffett owns Union Tank Car.
13 posted on 01/14/2014 11:23:56 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: thackney

I have a 65 year old hammer that still works.


14 posted on 01/14/2014 11:25:32 AM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: VRWCarea51
Mr. Buffet will be perfectly happy.

Tank cars, in North America, are privately owned; so when the railroad industry combines to prematurely retire the existing tank car fleet, they don't bear the direct cost. (Indirectly, they bear the cost of any inefficiency which might transfer a competitive advantage to a competing mode, but the railroad industry never really has come to grips with the fact that transportation is competitive).

15 posted on 01/14/2014 11:32:26 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: thackney

Five major derailments in Canada involving tank cars during the past 12 months. Build the pipeline.


16 posted on 01/14/2014 11:35:26 AM PST by Dartman (CDN PM Stephen Harper may not be perfect, but we don't have to be ashamed or embarassed of him.)
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To: WayneS

Obviously a pipeline is needed. Obvious to all except greenie imbeciles


17 posted on 01/14/2014 11:36:59 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: thackney
Whew!!! When they said "tank cars" I thought they meant like my 1970 Buick Estate Wagon.

It ain't phasing out anywhere.

18 posted on 01/14/2014 11:42:16 AM PST by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: thackney

The rail cars are getting around the pipeline ban so the rail cars have to be banned also.


19 posted on 01/14/2014 11:42:44 AM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINEhttp://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: Resolute Conservative

Their dream is to further hamper the transportation of oil to the refiners.


20 posted on 01/14/2014 11:44:30 AM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINEhttp://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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