NTSB recommends tougher standards for trains

The National Transportation Safety Board last week said that railroads need to do more to protect the environment and the communities they pass through as rail traffic sees a surge in crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota.

NTSB issued several safety recommendations, including a recommendation that railroads develop mandated comprehensive response plans in the event of a spill or fire.

“Because there is no mandate for railroads to develop comprehensive plans or ensure the availability of necessary response resources, carriers have effectively placed the burden of remediating the environmental consequences of an accident on local communities along their routes,” NTSB officials said.

Locally, BNSF Railway has trained and worked closely with local fire departments on hazardous and spill responses. In the past, BNSF has also responded quickly to spills and derailments along its route, which runs the length of Glacier National Park’s southern boundary through West Glacier, Columbia Falls and Whitefish.

Even so, local communities have expressed concern about the railroad and safety— particularly oil shipments because Bakken crude is much more flammable.

Recently there have been several high profile explosions and derailments with trains carrying Bakken crude, most notably a derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people and released 1.6 million gallons of crude oil into the environment. A derailment near Casselton, N.D., resulted in a spill and fire and the temporary evacuation of the town.

The fear locally is that a train derailment would pollute or cause a fire on Glacier Park’s boundary or one of the neighboring towns.

NTSB recommendations also call for using more structurally sound and higher safety grade tanker cars, and that crude oil be hauled through less populated areas. The recommendations were jointly written with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and sent to the Federal Railroad Administration.

BNSF did not disagree with the recommendations.

“NTSB’s recommendations reaffirm many of the major new actions the rail and petroleum industries, and U.S. Department of Transportation agencies have agreed to undertake to ensure shipping crude oil and other flammable liquids by rail is safe,” BNSF spokesman Matt Jones said. “Our safety vision has long been that every accident is preventable. We look forward to working with our customers, the regulatory agencies and the communities we serve, to make sure that rail continues to be the safest mode of surface transportation, particularly for hazardous materials.”