Railways ordered to stop using older tank cars in Canada

Hat tip: this was alluded to at the NTSB hearings today.

As my Yellow line Metrorail was crossing the Potomac headed into DC this morning, there was a northbound CSX freight train right alongside us on the old Pennsylvania Railroad bridge. There were several DOT-111 tank cars in that train. DOT-111 is a catch-all design used to haul just about everything.

Railways ordered to stop using older tank cars in Canada

News / Canada

The federal government is pulling 5,000 older tank cars off the rails immediately as it adopts the major rail safety recommendations of the Transportation Safety Board.

By: Allan Woods Quebec Bureau, Published on Wed Apr 23 2014

MONTREAL—The federal government is pulling the most dangerous rail cars off the country's tracks in the next 30 days and will ban tankers not built to the current high standards by 2017 as a result of last summer's deadly train crash and explosion in Quebec.

The new order will affect some 5,000 DOT-111 tank cars that have a month to be taken out of service. About 65,000 additional cars used to carry ethanol or crude oil will have to be upgraded with reinforced steel or scrapped by May 1, 2017, when the outmoded, high-risk rail cars will be banished from Canadian tracks and prevented from crossing the Canada-United States border.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced the newest measures that the government is taking in response to the Lac-Mégantic disaster following the recommendations of crash investigators with the Transportation Safety Board in January. The agency has identified the thin steel walls of the tankers carrying flammable crude oil last July as one of the reasons that the load caught fire, exploded and ravaged a large swath of downtown Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people.
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The Conservative government is also ordering rail operators to draw up emergency response plans that will help fire crews and other authorities called in to deal with an incident involving flammable liquids and looking at lower speed limits for trains passing through strategic areas such as towns or sources of drinking water that could be disproportionately affected by a train accident.

Transport minister wants rapid phase-out of old tanker cars, emergency response plans

CBC News Posted: Apr 23, 2014 8:35 AM ET| Last Updated: Apr 23, 2014 4:14 PM ET

Changes to improve rail safety were announced Wednesday by federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt in response to recommendations made by the Transportation Safety Board in the aftermath of the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, Que.

The federal government wants a three-year phase-out or retrofit of older tank cars that are used to transport crude oil or ethanol by rail, but will not implement a key TSB recommendation that rail companies conduct route planning when transporting dangerous goods.

As well, certain tankers that Raitt said are the "least crash-resistant" and have "no continuous reinforcement of their bottom shells" will be removed within 30 days, by ministerial order. There are 5,000 of these cars in North America, she said, but could not give a figure of how many are used in Canada.
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There are 65,000 of the more robust Dot-111 cars in North America that must be phased out or retrofitted within three years if used in Canada, Raitt said, adding, "Officials have advised us three years is doable." She said she couldn't calculate the cost of the retrofits, but told reporters, "industry will be footing the bill."