DOT issues new rules for hazardous materials on railways.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued new rules on the shipping of hazardous materials in compliance with the 9/11 Commission Act adopted by Congress last year. The new rule by the Federal Railroad Administration will require railroads to route every train carrying the most toxic and dangerous hazardous materials on the safest and most secure route.

Railroads will be required to do a safety and security risk analysis of primary routes and any practical alternatives they might use, according to the DOT final interim rule. By September 2009, they must route trains with dangerous chemicals based on the studies. Those that do not use the safest routes could be fined up to $10,000 a day and ordered to reroute trains.

Congress had ordered the department to come up with the rule to comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

In making their analyses, railroads will be required to consider 27 risk factors such as trip length, population density, and volume and types of hazardous materials being moved, according to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. They also must consider information provided by communities. In addition, the rule includes several rail security provisions designed to guard against tampering with the rail hazmat car during transportation, Peters said.

Environmental groups had been promoting a rule that required railroads to route around major cities considered a terrorist risk. The Washington, D.C., government had banned the shipment of dangerous cargo through the city in 2005, but CSX Transportation and the Bush Administration fought the ban in federal court and it never took effect.

The 27 risk factors for consideration can be found at www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/PubAffairs /RailHazmatRoutingIFRBackgrounder041608.pdf and include factors such as track type and maintenance schedule, signalization along the route, type of grade crossings, proximity to terrorist targets, population density, shared track with passenger rails, speed, proximity to repair facilities, etc.

The interim final rule on rail hazmat routing was developed by the Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in consultation with the Federal Railroad Administration, and fully complies with the provisions of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.