US regulators issue key tank car rulesOREANDA-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.

Railroads and petroleum shippers are not pleased with new rules for the handling of tank cars moving crude, ethanol and other flammable materials, which have been in the works since August 2014. But US and Canadian officials said that regulators and industry must respond to deaths and injuries from train accidents.

When unveiling the new rules in Washington, DC, today, Department of Transportation (DOT) secretary Anthony Foxx noted that 99.9pc of crude trains arrive at their destination safely. But he wants 100pc performance as more crude gets shipped and more trains crash.

"We have to strive for perfection," Foxx said. The schedule for the new rules strikes a balance between feasibility and safety, he said.

Transport Canada minister Lisa Raitt joined Foxx in announcing the rules, saying implementation "will not be easy, and quite frankly will not be cheap." With trains crossing borders between the two countries, regulations must be harmonized, she said.

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 1.125mn 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.

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.

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 as current air brake technology does.

The US standards are being rolled out to coincide with Canadian rules so shippers do not have to cope with two timelines for tank cars moving between the two countries, with one exception. The US 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. Canada has a 1 May 2017 deadline. Non-jacketed CPC-1232 cars in crude service must be retired or retrofit by 1 April 2020.

The rule 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 in 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.

The rules also include analysis of routes for trains moving flammable liquids, better information sharing among first responders and the railroads, documented crude sampling and testing program for shippers.

Information about how much crude is moving through given areas could be harder to obtain, however, as the new rule has information released to "fusion centers" within states that would then send the information to local first responders. It does not explicitly require the information on train volumes and locations to be publicly released. Several states and the railroads fought over Freedom of Information Act requests for the data made by environmental groups and media outlets. Railroads have maintained releasing the data would be a security and business risk for them.