Oregon OKs CBR terminal expansion

One day after Oregon denied a permit for a coal export terminal on the Columbia River, a separate state body has approved plans to expand a crude-by-rail (CBR) transfer terminal serving trains and barge traffic.

DOT NPRM helps bump up freight car builder stocks

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on DOT 111 tank cars for crude oil and HHFTs (High-Hazard Flammable Trains), specifically the NPRM’s proposal for phasing out older, pre-CPC-1232 tank cars, could worsen the crude oil tank car shortage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 13, 2014. Following the WSJ’s report, the stock prices of three tank car builders—Trinity, The Greenbrier Companies, and American Railcar Industries—increased by nearly 3% each.

DOT crude oil NPRM: Will cooler heads prevail?

A recent call-in forum on crude by rail conducted by Cowen and Company Managing Director and Railway Age Contributing Editor Jason H. Seidl “helped affirm our view that the final version of the DOT’s safety rules may include some changes to the ones proposed on July 23.”

Tank Car of the Future among more Greenbrier railcar contracts

Not including orders for 7,000 new railcars worth $700 million announced May 21, 2014, Greenbrier has been awarded contracts for 7,700 cars from multiple buyers valued at more than $960 million. Among the orders are 3,500 Tank Cars of the Future from multiple customers in the U.S. and Canada, “the first awards in the rail industry for a dramatically improved tank car for transporting flammables,” Greenbrier said.
Commentary

Safety-driven railway realignments

As railroaders, regulators, suppliers, and crude oil shippers convene at the Railway Age Crude by Rail Conference on June 12, they may ponder the full range of proffered remedies to exploding oil trains: re-classification of Bakken crude from merely flammable to explosive; de-gasification before loading; better track and car maintenance; tighter operating rules; sharing of consist details with first responders; and, of course, more robust tank cars.

UBS: “No collapse in tank cars imminent”

“Tank car concerns are creating quite a stir,” says Eric Crawford of UBS Investment Research, commenting on the tank car market.

Transport Canada toughens CBR safety regs

Trains carrying 20 cars or more of crude oil or ethanol must not exceed 50 mph under a new directive issued by Transport Canada on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, and that limit may be lowered for some locations after specific risk assessments for particular urban populations and sensitive assets such as water sources.

From Midland Manufacturing, a safer, stronger pressure relief valve

Midland Manufacturing of Skokie, Ill, a Dover Corp. company and supplier of valves and level-measurement devices for the rail tank car market since 1951, is among the equipment manufacturers on a CBR (crude by rail) tank car safety task force convened by the Railway Supply Institute Committee on Tank Cars (RSICTC), Association of American Railroads (AAR) Tank Car Committee, and various rail equipment manufacturers.

NSC’s new crude oil “slick”

National Steel Car, which has been building freight cars in Hamilton, Ont., for 102 years, has entered the railroad tank car market with a 31,800-gallon DOT-111 “slick” (non-jacketed, non-coil) general-purpose (non-pressure) model built to AAR P-1577/CPC-1232 safety standards with half-head end shields and AAR-required rollover protection.

DOT-111 phase-out highlights CN hazmat safety initiatives

CN “continues to take significant steps to strengthen our railway’s Safety Management System, with the goal of improving the safety of transportation of dangerous goods,” says President and CEO Claude Mongeau.
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