US regulators issue key new tank car rules

OREANDA-NEWS. US regulators today unveiled the first new federally mandated tank car standards in more than 50 years, which will spur an industry effort to retire or retrofit the existing fleet by May 2025.

The new Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) rule, in the works formally since last August and jointly announced today with Canadian officials, jibes with regulations proposed by Transport Canada in March.

Both countries will require tank cars carrying flammable liquids to have shell thickness of 9/16th of an inch, extra protections for valves and other top fittings, full-height head shields on both ends, exterior jackets and thermal protection for the shell and a new bottom outlet valve for any car produced after 1 October 2015.

But the rule also requires additional breaking capacity in the form of an advanced two-way breaking device on the end of trains or the use of distributed breaking technology for any train that with 20 or more flammable liquid tank cars or 35 or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid in manifest service.

All high-hazard flammable trains must be equipped with electronically-controlled pneumatic brakes after 2023, with any 70-car train with at least one car of a Packing Group I material moving faster than 30mph equipped with the brakes by 1 January 2021. The braking requirement is aimed at reducing the potential of a pile-up derailment by applying the brakes on train cars at the same time instead of sequentially under the current air brake technology.

Crude-by-rail has grown from a niche business to a core mode for oil transport in the US and Canada, coinciding with the onshore production boom. Crude by rail from, to or through the US has grown to 1.2mn b/d in February compared with 20,000 b/d in January 2010, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), peaking so far at 34.9mn b/d in December.

Officials in both countries have been focused on changes to rules governing transport of flammable goods by rail — targeting crude and ethanol — since 47 people died when a runaway crude unit train derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013. There have been a total of nine fiery crude-by-rail accidents in the US and Canada over the last two years.

The standards have been harmonized with their timelines between the US and Canada to ensure that shippers do not have to cope with two timelines for tank cars moving between the two countries, with one exception. The rule adopts a risk-based approach to retirements with the oldest, non-jacketed DOT-111 cars to be removed from crude service and other packing group I materials or retrofit by 1 January 2018, compared with Canada's 1 May 2017 deadline. Non-jacketed CPC-1232 cars in crude service must be retired or retrofit by 1 April 2020.

Ethanol shippers and those moving other Packing Group II materials have a slightly longer timeline with non-jacketed DOT-111 cars required to be dealt with by 1 May 2023 and non-jacketed CPC-1232's in that service by 1 July 2023.

Shippers moving goods in jacketed CPC-1232 cars or other remaining tank cars moving hazardous materials have until 1 May 2025.

The bill includes several operating restrictions on carriers including a 50mph speed restriction that is less onerous for carriers than the 40mph limit feared by many in the industry. It requires the 40mph restriction for any tank cars not meeting the high standards outlined its rule for trains moving through high-threat urban areas, a move already agreed to by industry and enforced by an emergency order previously released by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Other restrictions and analysis of routes for trains moving flammable liquids including better information sharing among first responders and the railroads are also included.

Shippers must have a documented sampling and testing program in place under the new rules and be able to provide testing results to inspectors upon request.