Proposed new federal regulations will give shippers until 2025 to upgrade rail tank cars to a higher safety standard, a transition that would come almost 30 years after serious deficiencies in the fleet were first identified.
The safety upgrade would build on new standards announced by Transport Canada last July and will require shippers to make tank cars more resistant to punctures and valve failures in the case of derailment or collisions.
The Transport Canada regulations were posted online this week without a news release. They come as the House of Commons transport committee released a report today on the transportation of dangerous goods and Canada's safety regime.
The changes all flow from the deadly crash of an unmanned oil train in Lac-Megantic, Que., in July 2013 that claimed 47 lives and incinerated the town's downtown core.
But concerns over the old DOT111 tank car — the workhorse of the North American fleet — date back to at least 1996, when the Transportation Safety Board of Canada reported that "In general, Class 111A tank cars do not have sufficient protection against punctures, even in a low-speed impact, due to the thinness of the tank shell and the absence of a head shield."
String of recent derailments
A booming oil-by-rail business has compounded the danger over the last five years.
In the last month alone, four trains carrying crude oil have derailed in Canada and the United States, sparking major fires, polluting waterways and forcing some evacuations.
There have been three recent CN Rail derailments in northern Ontario, including two along a stretch of track about an hour south of Timmins, near the village of Gogama.
A CN train also derailed Wednesday evening near the Manitoba community of Gregg, about 50 kilometres east of Brandon. CN spokesman Brent Kossey said there were no reports of injuries but provided no information on what cargo was in the derailed cars.
New cars by 2025
The proposals posted Wednesday in the Canada Gazette would require shippers to upgrade tank cars to a standard called TC-117 by 2025.
The standard includes improved shields at the top of the tank car to better cover the pressure release valve from damage in a derailment. A full shield to protect both ends of a tank car from puncture would also become mandatory.
A thermal shell to better shield tank cars from fire would also become mandatory and steel used to build the cars would be thickened.
The proposed regulations do not cover improved braking requirements. Transport Canada says technical discussions continue with the U.S. to harmonize standards.
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