Dive Brief:

• The federal government recently amended its Hazardous Materials Regulations to update safety requirements for the rail transport of flammable liquids, as outlined in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act of 2015. 
• The new update expands the requirements to use the enhanced tank car for all flammable liquids, regardless of train length. It also mandates that all new tank cars have a thermal protection blanket, and that retrofitted older cars have both a thermal protection blanket and top fittings protection.
• The ammendments also require a faster phase-out of specific, older tank cars carrying highly flammable, unrefined petroleum products.

Dive Insight:

A recent CSX train's derailment is but the latest example of the risks associated with rail transport of hazardous materials. Two dozen of a freight train's 125 cars derailed in Kentucky, including four carrying sulfuric acid, according to American Shipper, although the carrier said no hazardous materials were released.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in June it had investigated nine accidents involving flammable liquids transported by rail in the last five years, and the agency was preparing a roundtable discussion on the topic for the following month.

“We need to make the transportation of these flammable liquids safer,’’ NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt said at the time. “That includes making sure trains stay on the tracks and having rail tank cars that can keep their product contained in the event of a derailment or crash.”