Railroads Still Don't Want Public To Know Oil Train Danger

If you want to know whether an oil train is going by your community, just go down to the railroad tracks and watch for it. But don't ask the railroad or the state. In many cases, they don't think you can be trusted with this secret.

After an oil train derailed and exploded, killing 47 people in the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic in 2013, both Canadian and U.S. regulators started pushing railroads for more safety — and more disclosure. A May 2014 emergency order from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) required railroads to give oil-train routing information to states, who could release it to emergency responders and the public. At the urging of the railroads, some states chose not to release it.

In May of 2015, the FRA issued more permanent regulations on oil train safety, which were widely interpreted as rescinding the disclosure requirement. But before the month was over, the FRA made clear that the part of the earlier order requiring disclosure to states was still in effect.

That does not please the railroads. Aaron Cantú reports in VICE News that two railroads, "Norfolk Southern and CSX — whose tanker trains have derailed and exploded this year — are suing Maryland's Department of Environmental to block it from disclosing shipment information to the Associated Press and McClatchy."

A McClatchy investigation found that "state officials in Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania had received no updated train reports from the rail company CSX since June 2014," according to VICE.

• "Railroad Companies Don't Want to Disclose Where — and When — Their 'Bomb Trains' Are Traveling," VICE News, July 24, 2015, by Aaron Cantú.
• "Feds Warn Railroads To Comply with Oil Train Notification Requirement," McClatchy Washington Bureau, July 22, 2015, by Curtis Tate.
• Previous Story: WatchDog of July 1, 2015.