Tesoro acquiring safer rail cars for Vancouver terminal

ETA to add, in the light of what the first commenter says, this is Vancouver, WA, which is on I-5 due north of Portland, Oregon. I used to live in Vancouver, WA, so it didn't occur to me to note that this is not Vancouver, British Columbia.

I apologize for not making that clear.

Also see this post: Train fire adds fuel to safety debate

Tesoro acquiring safer rail cars for Vancouver terminal

By Aaron Corvin, Columbian port & economy reporter
Published: February 6, 2014, 2:51 PM
Updated: February 6, 2014, 6:36 PM

Tesoro Corp. said Thursday it has begun replacing older cars in its oil rail car fleet with safer, post-October 2011 cars. The company said it is committed to have its full fleet replaced by the middle of this year, before construction of its proposed oil-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver.

Tesoro’s announcement comes after several recent oil train derailments and explosions, including the July 6 disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in which 47 people were killed and part of the town was leveled. The calamities have prompted government investigations and raised public concerns about the safety of hauling crude by rail through communities.

Voluntary action

In a news release Thursday, Tesoro said its rail car fleet will consist entirely of the newer DOT-111 design rail cars — equipped with reinforced shields and relief devices — by mid-2014.
....

But other companies, not just Tesoro and Savage, would be able to use rail to ship oil to the Port of Vancouver. Casey said Tesoro will work with other potential customers and business partners to address rail car safety issues. Because there are a lot of variables involved, Casey said, “we’re not quite ready to say what that looks like yet.”

Tesoro Corp. said Thursday that it would acquire new, safer rail cars to transport oil from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota to the Port of Vancouver, where the oil will be transferred to ships for transport to U.S. oil refineries. Recent accidents have raised concerns about tanker car safety. These cars are in a North Dakota rail yard.

Friday, February 07, 2014
Written by Douglas John Bowen

Railcar suppliers gear up to meet demand for safety-first tank cars.

For tank car builders—American Railcar Industries, The Greenbrier Cos., National Steel Car, Texana Tank Car, Trinity Industries, Union Tank Car—the business outlook for the next five years is good, as demand for tank cars continues to surpass builder capacity. The RSI's year-end 2013 report showed deliveries of 28,996 tank cars, and a backlog of 55,386. With builder capacity expected to be approximately 30,000 cars per year, this backlog will take close to two years to fill.

The tank car building boom is tempered by a regulatory climate in which new safety standards are the subject of intense discussion among railroads, carbuilders, lessors, and oil producers. Following several serious accidents involving crude oil trains, as well as the discovery that crude oil from Bakken shale deposits extracted by hydraulic fracturing is particularly volatile, the PHMSA, FRA, and Transport Canada are expected to impose new standards for DOT 111 (AAR 211) non-pressurized tank cars handling hazardous materials, specifically those transporting Class 3 PG (Packing Group) I and II denatured ethanol and crude oil. That's not expected to happen until 2015, despite calls by politicians to speed up the usually lengthy federal rulemaking process.

The industry has not waited for a rulemaking to manufacture stronger tank cars. Since October 2011, well before the CBR (crude by rail) boom started, all DOT 111s have been built far sturdier than their predecessors.

The Greenbrier Companies announced that it will design a new generation tank car of the future for rail transport of hazardous freight, including flammable crude oil and ethanol, that can better withstand the additional demands associated with operating unit trains. The new tank car of the future design will also respond to safety criticisms of the existing legacy fleet of older DOT-111 tank cars. The new car design is intended to meet anticipated new industry and government standards for tank cars transporting certain hazardous material. Greenbrier is also introducing retrofits for tank cars already in service or now being produced, significantly enhancing the safety of existing cars.

"Statistics from the Association of American Railroads show that 99.9977 percent of all rail-carried hazardous material arrives at its destination without incident. However, recent high-profile derailments have clearly demonstrated the need for updating the North American tank car fleet to the highest practical safety standards," said Greenbrier Chairman and CEO William Furman. "Greenbrier is addressing the tank car safety issue on two fronts - by supporting a tank car of the future and through offering retrofit alternatives for the legacy fleet, including our most recently built CPC-1232 tank cars, as may be appropriate. This allows the industry to take immediate steps to improve public safety. It also preserves the massive investment in tank cars now in service, by extending the time these cars could be used in hazardous material transportation as they ultimately transition over time to less hazardous service. The Department of Transportation has yet to rule on industry recommendations to adopt the newer and safer CPC-1232 standards submitted to them in March 2011. These were subsequently mandated by the AAR on tank cars ordered after October 2011. When Greenbrier builds railcars, our top priorities are to ensure our workers' and the public's safety while protecting the natural environment."

In order to respond to immediate safety concerns, and in anticipation of future action by the DOT, Greenbrier is also introducing retrofits for legacy DOT-111 cars and newer cars that meet the current CPC-1232 standard mandated by AAR. As of November 2013, there were 272,100 DOT-111 tank cars in service in North America of which 255,000 were of the older legacy design. Among those tank cars, 170,000 were in hazardous transport, with 68,000 tank cars in crude oil and ethanol service.