NTSB derailment investigation renews concerns about detectors, tank cars and Norfolk Southern

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Ohio,Norfolk Southern Corp.,Pennsylvania

The National Transportation Safety Board’s daylong hearing on a 2023 Ohio train derailment near the Pennsylvania border is giving stakeholders plenty to think about. Questions include how to prevent similar disasters.

FILE - A cleanup worker stands on a derailed tank car of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, continues, Feb. 15, 2023. The National Transportation Safety Board’s daylong hearing on what caused the East Palestine derailment and how to prevent similar disasters gave the community, railroads and policymakers plenty to think about.

But neither one of those measures seem like they would have changed anything in this derailment. Even though the Salem and East Palestine detectors are 20 miles apart, the previous one was just 10 miles away so they already averaged 15 miles of distance between them. Norfolk Southern was already using 170 degrees as its threshold.The East Palestine derailment highlighted longstanding concerns about certain tank cars known as the DOT-111.

Regulators issued a rule in 2015 that was designed to get all the DOT-111s carrying flammable liquids replaced or upgraded by 2025, but Congress delayed the deadline until 2029. The tank car owners — which are generally the chemical companies, other shippers and leasing companies rather than the railroads — have long resisted a more aggressive upgrade schedule because of the roughly $135,000 price tag of a stronger DOT-117 tank car.

In the Senate, proponents for the rail safety bill have continued to express optimism that the legislation could get a vote on the floor. But so far opposition from Republicans and the railroads has kept the bill from moving forward. Similar legislation has failed to gain any momentum in the Republican-controlled House.

 

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