The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued on April 17, 2015 several Safety Advisories and an Emergency Order addressing several operating practices affecting the transport of high hazardous flammable materials. The Safety Advisories address mechanical inspections for high hazard flammable trains (HHFTs) and identifies information the FRA wants following a crude oil rail accident. The Emergency Order pertains to the speed of HHFTs.

“The freight railroad industry shares the belief that there is no greater priority than safety. It is always our goal to make a safe network even safer, and as FRA data shows, 2014 was the safest year for train accidents in railroad history,” said AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger.

“The added federal directives build on the many practices and protocols the industry has applied for years for safely moving and handling hazardous materials by rail, including flammable liquids,” said Hamberger, who noted that while some provisions are based on existing railroad practices, others are problematic. For example, one of the agency’s advisories would have railroads provide customer information they don’t possess and customers are not required to provide.

“Overall, these federal provisions reflect the fact that moving crude by rail is a shared responsibility, involving a safety system of prevention, mitigation and response,” Hamberger added. “Railroads, like all supply chain stakeholders, anxiously await the federal government’s final rules on tank cars, which directly addresses the heart of mitigation.”

(Source: AAR)