Secretary unveils hazmat rail regs
The Transportation Technology Center on Wednesday was visited by its landlady, who told her tenants to keep up the good work.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters used the occasion to announce new federal regulations that will require railroads to use the safest and most secure route for every train carrying the most toxic and dangerous hazardous materials.
The TTC is operated by the Association of American Railroads under a partnership with the Federal Railroad Administration, which continues to own the facility.
The Department of Transportation created the center 40 years ago in July to test high-speed passenger trains. The center gradually shifted its emphasis to research on safety and efficiency for freight and passenger service and when the federal government planned to shut down the center in the early 1980s, the AAR stepped up and offered to run it.
Ten years ago, AAR set up the Transportation Technology Center Inc. as a subsidiary, and concentrated most of its research work here in Pueblo.
Peters praised the center for its ongoing research to improve rail safety. Recent standards for tank cars will be enhanced soon, she said, thanks to ongoing tests here to improve their ability to withstand accidents.
During her tour, Peters and her entourage, which included leaders of the AAR, the Amtrak board of directors and a number of other federal officials, witnessed an impact test to show the effectiveness of collision bars to spread the energy of a crash and protect crews and passengers.
Eloy Martinez, program manager for the Federal Railroad Administration test, drove home the importance when he showed slides of an actual crash that was used to model the test. That accident claimed three lives and injured five other people when a commuter car hit a stalled truck at a grade crossing. The truck was carrying rolls of steel cable, one of which crashed into the car, causing damage up to 22 feet.
TTCI firefighters Jeff Rosales (left) and John Keister walk toward a mock train derailment at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters (center) observes the mock emergency response drill on Wednesday at the Pueblo test track. Bill Baker (right), a hazmat instructor, escorts Peters on her tour of the site.
Martinez said that a collision bar placed at the end of the car would be damaged but it would absorb the energy of the impact rather than crushing the end of the car.
That, indeed, was what happened.
Peters also visited the center’s Emergency Response Training Center where the TTCI trains more than 1,000 emergency responders each year. The ERTC recently became a part of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, qualifying it for Homeland Security programs. It also is in line for federal money that will pay to build an above-ground subway simulation.
Peters praised the center for its work with the Federal Railroad Association and others to improve transportation safety.
Speaking in front of an impact wall where a number of tank cars have been penetrated in an effort to improve shielding, she said that later this year, new standards, which will enable tank cars to handle impacts 500 percent greater than they would now, would be developed and a final decision made by 2009.
Joseph Boardman, Federal Railroad administrator, said that in five years, half of the nation’s fleet would be replaced and 100 percent within 10 years.
Peters said that the effort goes beyond accident concerns, pointing out that the Transportation Safety Administration also has had a role in the work in order to protect cars from terrorist attacks.
Speaking on the new routing rules, she said that railroads are indispensable for hauling chemicals such as chlorine and anhydrous ammonia, which are important to agriculture, water purification and manufacturing.
Beginning June 1, the rule will require railroads to conduct a comprehensive safety and security risk analysis of its primary route and any practicable alternative routes over which it has authority to operate. The analysis must consider information provided by local communities and a minimum of 27 risk factors such as a trip's length, the volume and type of hazmat being moved, existing safety measures along the route and population density, Peters said. Railroads must implement their routing decisions based on these analyses by September, 2009.
The rule also includes several rail security provisions designed to guard against tampering with the rail hazmat car during transportation, the secretary said.
During the day, the Amtrak board members had a lunch meeting with the AAR board, the first time the two groups have ever had a formal meeting, although Amtrak Board Chairman Donna McLean is on the AAR board.