Safety measure could derail US logistics

The deadline is approaching for freight and passenger railroads to install a positive train control (PTC) system. Safety experts say it could have prevented this deadly Amtrak derailment last May in Philadelphia. (source:ddp USA/REX Shutterstock)

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The most economical mode of transportation for passengers and essential cargo could be severely disrupted without an extension by Congress on the deadline for railroads to implement new safety technology.

A 2008 safety law requires positive train control (PTC), and carriers are expected to have it in use by the end of this year, 31 December.

PTC is designed to automatically stop a train to prevent a collision or potential derailment due to high speeds. PTC utilizes a system of GPS, wireless radios and a computer network to track trains. It would be able to either reduce speed or stop movement on all lines used by trains carrying passengers or toxic chemicals.

But the railroad industry estimates the cost of implementing the system could reach $70bn, and both freight operators and passenger lines have told Congress that they cannot meet the deadline. Missing the deadline would sting the fertilizer industry, oil and gas, and other chemical producers that depend on rail.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is among the groups worried about how this could cripple commerce in the US and recently said that Congress should strive to reach a deadline that would accommodate the railroads and still achieve the higher level of safety.

To date, 21 passenger and commuter railroads and the seven Class 1 freight rail companies operating within the US have asked for an extension. One key concern is that the federal requirement leaves no allowance for potential technical issues that could arise.

The Federal Railroad Administration will enforce the measure and companies not in compliance will face fines. To that end, some major carriers have said the only solution would be to halt shipments of any toxic inhalation hazard and prevent passenger operations, like Amtrak, from using their lines.

In February, a CSX train hauling 3m gal of Bakken crude bound for Virginia derailed in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, erupting into a huge fire that burned homes and saw 20 railcars leak. There were no deaths, but some people were treated for inhalation injuries.

A lawsuit was filed in September in the Wayne County, West Virginia, court system against the carrier over the release. The suit seeks unspecified damages, along with a jury trial.

On 2 July, authorities evacuated 5,000 residents of Maryville, Tennessee, after a freight train derailed while hauling 24,000 gal of acrylonitrile (ACN). CSX said a total of 27 railcars were carrying hazardous material. The train was en route from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Waycross, Georgia. 

On July 17, a freight train with 105 fully loaded crude oil tanker cars derailed in sparsely populated northeast Montana and at least two of the 22 tanker cars leaked. There was no fire, and residents were only temporarily evacuated.

Safety experts have said PTC could have prevented the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight people and injured over 200 in May. The disaster happened after the train accelerated to more than 100 mph as it approached a curve. It was the passenger carrier’s ninth derailment of 2015.

Amtrak has said it believes it will make the government’s deadline, except for a 56-mile gap between New York and Connecticut, as the technology already has been in place within the carrier’s system.

Amtrak officials said the company has played a prominent role in the development of PTC and developed two of the first three systems approved for operation:

• The Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES), introduced in 2000, is the only PTC system approved for 150 mph operation.

• The Incremental Train Control System (ITCS), currently in service on the 97-mile Amtrak-owned segment of its Michigan Line between Porter and Kalamazoo, was the third such system to be approved, and is the only system other than ACSES currently approved for operation at speeds in excess of 90 mph.

“Amtrak owns relatively little of the infrastructure we operate over, about 97% of our route mileage is owned by host railroads. Thus while Amtrak uses ACSES and ITCS on its own territory, when operating on host railroads Amtrak’s onboard PTC equipment must be compatible with the wayside PTC system used by the host,” said DJ Stadtler, Amtrak vice president of operations.

“We are working with the state of Michigan, which owns the Michigan Line segment between Kalamazoo and Dearborn that adjoins the Amtrak-owned segment, to complete ITCS installation there. That ITCS installation will probably be operated and maintained by Amtrak under contract, but the state is responsible for the cost of installation, since it owns the railroad.”

Union Pacific (UP) officials said current plans call for stopping all chemical shipments, including fertilizers, several weeks ahead of the deadline. It then would cease allowing passenger trains just ahead of the end of December.

UP CEO Lance Fritz has described PTC as the largest and most complex undertaking ever attempted by the industry, with a tremendous level of new physical infrastructure including additional signals and control system boxes.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) CEO Carl Ice said the company invested over $1.5bn in the testing, development, purchase and installation of PTC components. The system will be deployed on roughly half of its system, which hosts 80% of BNSF’s freight amount, he said.

Ice said BSNF expects to have a significant portion of the PTC system implemented by the deadline, but will still require ongoing installation and extensive testing.

“PTC deployment is an unprecedented technical and operational challenge that requires the entire US railroad network to develop, test and implement this new safety system, and avoid impacts to network capacity and fluidity as we do,” Ice said.

“Despite our strong commitment to this technology, BNSF has faced significant technical, regulatory and operational obstacles to meeting the PTC implementation deadline imposed,” he said.

“As a result, BNSF believes that Congress must move the PTC deadline in order to achieve successful PTC implementation and to avoid potential significant and unnecessary congestion and shipper service impacts.”

By some estimates about one-third of the nation’s rail system does not yet have PTC installed, and some have suggested the deadline should be moved to at least 2020.

Cutting services would have immediate ramifications, from shortchanging farmers on their fertilizer volumes for next spring plantings to leaving communities without chlorine supplies necessary to treat municipal water supplies.

While industries throughout the US would be impacted, the fertilizer industry raised concerns earlier about likely restrictions on rail service.

The railroads are especially vital for delivering anhydrous ammonia, a crucial nutrient for corn and the production of nitrogen used to raise a variety of crops across the nation. The direct application market sees about 4m tonnes/year of ammonia moved by rail in the US.

Sidelining trains also would have a tremendous impact on crop nutrients from Canada. This would be especially damaging for the potash segment, which already has been under pressure from greatly reduced domestic demand over the past growing season and has lowered pricing levels.

For Canadian producer PotashCorp, the reliance on rail is crucial for its 4,200 specialised railcars and more than 300 US hubs to distribute products. The company said it supports the technology, but a compromise is needed because the changes go into effect just as the new crop year unfolds across North America. 

“Regarding the positions of PotashCorp on PTC, we have been clear that we would like to see long-term resolution, ideally by the deadline, and we have concerns that failure to extend the deadline may alter downstream production in our phosphate operation at Aurora, [Illinois] and potentially reduce nitrogen production at both our Lima, Ohio, and Augusta, Georgia, facilities,” said Chet Reynolds, PCS senior director of global government relations.

Reynolds added that shutting down the US rail system could create a bottleneck on an already congested interstate highway system. The industry widely holds that there are not enough 18-wheelers to fill in the ammonia shipment gap.

Rail transports roughly 40% of all intercity freight in the US and recent estimates calculated that moving all that freight by trucks would cost about $69bn annually.

Fertilizer producers view rail as still the safest, most desirable option, with or without PTC.

The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) has consistently been an advocate of rail’s vital importance to the crop nutrients marketplace in North America.

The group also has been in favour of the safety technology, but said it has grown extremely wary of the possibilities that carriers will soon reject fertilizer deliveries, namely ammonia.

“PTC is an extremely huge issue for us. We have every reason to believe that the railroads will not haul ammonia unless the PTC deadline is extended beyond Dec. 31, 2015,” said Kathy Mathers, TFI spokesperson. “What makes this particularly challenging for fertilizer is that, due to logistical issues, empty cars are also considered to be toxic inhalation hazard cargo.”

“We need for the extension to occur by the end of October,” she said. “If not, fertilizer shipments will be disrupted and producers won’t be happy, retailers won’t be happy and farmers won’t be happy.”

There is a possibility that this could be resolved, despite federal regulators holding fast to the deadline.

In July, the US Senate passed a wide-ranging transportation bill that includes a provision for extending the PTC deadline for up to three years. The US House is working on its own version, which many expect to also include a deadline extension.

Another factor working in favour of a resolution is that authority for federal transportation programs expires on 29 Oct and it is thought that Congress will seek to pass an extension of those programs to avoid a government shutdown.

That could move the PTC deadline back and allow for more time for full railroad industry compliance.

Authorities evacuated 5,000 residents of Maryville, Tennessee, on 2 July 2015 after a freight train derailed while hauling 24,000 gal of acrylonitrile (ACN). (source: ZUMA/REX Shutterstock)

Insert photo: A crossing in Emporia, Kansas, warns motorists as Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains pass through every day. (source: Mark Reinstein/REX Shutterstock)

Cover photo: A Union Pacific engine is shown in Wyoming in 2012. (source: Francis Dean/REX Shutterstock)