Free Republic

One-third of the crude oil hauled from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale region by railcars could be forced off the tracks and into expensive truck fleets in the next four years, according to a railcar-industry trade group. The Railway Supply Institute says there aren’t enough shops to retrofit cars carrying flammable liquids in time to meet proposed federal deadlines, and that tens of thousands of cars will be idled as a result. The U.S. Department of Transportation wants tank cars carrying crude oil to be retrofitted with more puncture-resistant features in two years, and those carrying ethanol to be upgraded in...

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...

Regulations that could force oil companies to use stronger rail cars to move crude likely will be ready in 2015, according to a schedule released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Oil companies have increasingly used rail cars to move crude, but recent disasters, including a derailment and massive explosions in North Dakota last month, have drawn attention to the cars’ vulnerabilities. New regulations that could force older tank cars to be upgraded or phased out are under development, but will not be proposed until Nov. 12 and will be subject to a public comment period until Jan. 12,...

Tesoro Corp. said this week that it’s begun replacing its older rail cars used to transport crude oil with those of safer design. The San Antonio-based refiner said its rail-car fleet will consist entirely of the safer cars by mid-year. The change will apply “to the vast majority of crude-oil deliveries into Tesoro’s facilities,” the company said. Tesoro said it is “proactively” making the change, adopting designs for newer rail cars used to transport crude that were a recommended standard starting in October 2011. “Tesoro is committed to the safe and environmentally sound handling of crude oil,” Keith Casey, Tesoro’s...

Irving Oil said Monday it will remove from its fleet the same type of railcar involved in the deadly train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Que., last summer. The company said it will convert its fleet of crude oil railcars to comply with U.S. standards for DOT-111 tank cars built after Oct. 1, 2011, and remove the older cars from service. Specifications set out by the Association of American Railroads call for railcars built after October 2011 to be constructed with reinforcements that have been reported to reduce the risk of product loss if the railcars derail. The Saint John-based firm said...