BNSF Implements New Safety Rules for Oil Trains

In an effort to safely move massive oil trains from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, BNSF Railway has told shippers that it is implementing its own rules to try and prevent explosive derailments and accidental spills. In a letter to its customers on March 30, the railroad announced it would require oil trains to travel at slower speeds through populated areas, increase track inspections along waterways and encourage shippers to use safer and stronger tank cars. The announcement comes less than two months after a BNSF oil train derailed and exploded in Illinois. No one was injured in the accident. The railroad is also urging shippers to use stronger tank cars and will ban the use of DOT-111 and unmodified CPC-1232 cars within three years. The DOT-111 tank car was at the center of the deadly 2013 oil train wreck in Quebec that killed 47 people and leveled more than 30 buildings. Tougher CPC-1232 tank cars were introduced soon after, but a series of oil train wrecks in February and March of this year showed that the new tank cars were not as safe as the industry had believed. In January, the railroad began to charge oil shippers $1,000 every time they used an older tank car...more