Category Archives: Train braking systems

AP: Trump administration miscalculated benefit of better train brakes

Repost from The Associated Press

APNewsBreak: US miscalculated benefit of better train brakes

By Matthew Brown, December 20, 2018
FILE- In this Nov. 8, 2013 file photo, a tanker carrying crude oil burns after derailing in western Alabama outside Aliceville, Ala. The Trump admiinistration vastly understated the potential benefits of installing mmore advanceed brakes on trains that haul explosive fuels when it cancelled a requirement for railroads to begin using the equipment. A government analysis used by the administration to justify the cancellation omitted up to $117 illion in potential reduced damages from using electronic brakes. Department of Transportation officials acknnowledged the error after it was discovered by The Associated Press during a review of federal documents but said it would not have changed their decision. (Bill Castle/ABC 33/40 via AP, File)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration miscalculated the potential benefits of putting better brakes on trains that haul explosive fuels when it scrapped an Obama-era rule over cost concerns, The Associated Press has found.

A government analysis used to justify the cancellation omitted up to $117 million in estimated future damages from train derailments that could be avoided by using electronic brakes. Revelation of the error stoked renewed criticism Thursday from the rule’s supporters, who called the analysis biased.

Department of Transportation officials acknowledged the mistake after it was discovered by the AP during a review of federal documents. They said a correction will be published to the federal register.

But transportation spokesman Bobby Fraser said the decision not to require the brakes would stand under a Congressional act that said the costs couldn’t exceed the rule’s benefits.

“This was an unintentional error,” Fraser. “With the correction, in all scenarios costs still outweigh benefits.”

Safety advocates, transportation union leaders and Democratic lawmakers oppose the administration’s decision to kill the brake rule, which was included in a package of rail safety measures enacted in 2015 under President Barack Obama following dozens of accidents by trains hauling oil and ethanol in the U.S. and Canada.

The deadliest happened in Canada in 2013, when an unattended train carrying crude oil rolled down an incline, came off the tracks in the town of Lac-Megantic and exploded into a massive ball of fire, killing 47 people and obliterating much of the Quebec community’s downtown.

There have been other fiery crashes and fuel spills in Alabama, Oregon, Montana, Virginia, West Virginia, North Dakota, Illinois and elsewhere.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said the administration should reconsider the brake rule in light of its miscalculation.

“The omission of $117 million from the rule’s anticipated benefits is further proof that the Trump administration is willing to cut corners to put industry profits ahead of the American people’s safety,” said Merkley, a Democrat. He called for “a new cost-benefit analysis that is full and transparent.”

After the brake rule was enacted, lobbyists for the railroad and oil industries pushed to cancel it, citing the high cost of installing so-called electronic pneumatic brakes and questioning their effectiveness.

But supporters of the brakes said the issue should be reconsidered given the miscalculation and concerns about other benefits that may have been ignored, including reducing the frequency of runaway trains and severity of train-on-train collisions, said Robert Duff, a senior adviser to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat.

“This is not theoretical risk. We’ve actually seen these derailments,” Duff said.

Unlike other systems where brakes are applied sequentially along the length of a train, electronic pneumatic brakes, or ECP, work on all cars simultaneously. That can reduce the distance and time a train needs to stop and cause fewer cars to derail.

“These ECP brakes are very important for oil trains,” said Steven Ditmeyer, a rail safety expert and former senior official at the Federal Railroad Administration. “It makes a great deal of sense: All the brakes get applied immediately, and there would be fewer cars in the pileup.”

Under Obama, the Transportation Department determined the brakes would cost up to $664 million over 20 years and save between $470 million and $1.1 billion from accidents that would be avoided.

The Trump administration reduced the range of benefits to between $131 million and $374 million.

Transportation Department economists said in their analysis that the change was prompted in part by a reduction in oil train traffic in recent years. Even as ethanol shipments on U.S. railroads have continued to grow, reaching about 500,000 carloads annually, crude shipments peaked in 2014 and fell to about 200,000 carloads last year.

But in making their cost-benefit calculations, government economists left out the most common type of derailments in which spilled and burning fuel causes property damage but no mass casualties, the AP found. Equipping fuel trains with electronic brakes would reduce damages from those derailments by an estimated $48 million to $117 million, according to Department of Transportation estimates that were left out of the administration’s final tally.

Including the omitted benefits reduces the net cost of the requirement to as low as $63 million under one scenario laid out by the agency. Other scenarios put the net cost at more than $200 million.

Transportation spokesman Fraser said that would not have changed September’s decision to cancel the electronic brake requirement because of the cost.

The Association of American Railroads declined comment on the agency’s cost benefit calculations. Spokeswoman Jessica Kahanek said the move to rescind the Obama rule was in line with the requirements set forth by Congress, which passed a 2015 measure saying the Department of Transportation must repeal the braking requirement if expected costs exceed benefits.

The biggest share of oil now moved by rail goes from the Bakken oil patch of North Dakota and Montana to the West Coast, where fears of an accident were realized two years ago when 16 tank cars carrying Bakken oil derailed, igniting a fire that burned for 14 hours along the banks of the Columbia River near Mosier, Oregon.

The accident was caused by track problems. An investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration concluded electronic brakes would have made it less severe.

John Risch, national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, said electronic brakes also would have prevented the deaths at Lac-Megantic.

He added that the omission of benefits from the government’s findings further tilted a study that was otherwise flawed.

“It flies in the face of earlier, much more comprehensive studies,” Risch said. “We are using a 120-year-old technology with mechanical brakes. They’ve come to the peak of what you can do with them.”

 

Senators question railroads on oil train braking systems

Repost from Transportation Today
[Editor: I challenge Senators Feinstein and Harris (and Attorney General Becerra) to follow the lead of Senators Wyden and Merkley.  These “positive train control” braking systems, or “electronically controlled pneumatic” (ECP) braking systems – were supposed to be in place nationwide long ago, but every time a deadline approached, the railroad lobby won a delay.  Now they have Trump on their side.  Some background in this 2015 CNN report, “Amtrak derailment: Could technology have prevented crash?”.  – R.S.]

Lawmakers launch railway safety standards inquiry

BY DOUGLAS CLARK, OCTOBER 19, 2018

Union Pacific

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are seeking answers from two railway company’s regarding plans to ensure trains carrying hazardous material have updated braking systems.

To do so, the Oregon senators recently forwarded correspondence to Union Pacific and BNSF in the wake of the Trump Administration’s announcement to roll back an Obama-era rule requiring the installation of electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems by 2021. The legislators noted that the guideline was instituted after multiple oil train crashes across the United States, including one in the Columbia River Gorge.

“Too often our constituents in the Pacific Northwest have seen trains carrying crude oil crashing within and around their communities,” Wyden and Merkley wrote. “We have seen these trains crash near school buildings, small businesses, and homes, causing extensive damage to communities and putting our environment at risk, including sources of drinking water as well as river habitats that house endangered fish species.”

In their letter, the lawmakers inquired about how many of the railway companies’ trains carrying crude oil in Oregon and Washington have ECP brakes installed; the percentage of trains carrying crude oil through Oregon and Washington have ECP brakes; and whether the rule rollback impact purchasing of new railcars with ECP brakes.

The legislators maintain their constituents should be afforded security from potential railway transport dangers.

“Our constituents, many of whom live, work or go to school in the vicinity of rail lines that carry hazardous materials, need to know that their safety is being protected,” the legislators wrote.

Trump Trashes Oil Train Rules – Safety rolls on archaic rail brakes

From a recent Google Alert

Trump Trashes Oil Train Safety Rules

The Independent | SUindependent.com
Trump Trashes Oil Train Safety Rules, Wolverton, Petroleum, Oil, Obama, Safety Rules, Railroads, Trains, Braking, Tank Cars, Derailment, Spills, Department of Transportation
Trump Trashes Oil Train Safety Rules, Wolverton, Battle Ground, WA

CARTOON: Trump Trashes Oil Train Safety Rules. Posted by a guest contributor … (link)

Safety rolls on archaic rail brakes

Port Huron Times Herald

If you live … you probably do not want to look at the map the environmental organization Stand.earth keeps on its website.

…Last week, while everyone was watching the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Trump administration reversed another Obama-era regulation intended to protect the people who live along the nation’s rail corridors and the environment….  (continued)

Alarm bells in Benicia and beyond… what next?

The Tenor of our Times

Related imageIf you are on the Benicia Independent email list, I can pretty much be sure that your alarm bells – like mine – are going off.  A sampling…

  • Christine Blasey Ford and others accuse Judge Kavanaugh – the #MeToo movement and an FBI investigation
  • A “push poll” with Benicia election meddling by outside forces
  • Positive and effective support for one or more local City Council candidates
  • The Trump administration’s alarming “rollback” on oil train braking regulations
  • Urgent calls to help “flip” California congressional districts from red to blue
  • Continuing detention of immigrant children and families at our border
  • Deadlines for financial contributions needed for countless important causes
  • A Benicia resident – a neighbor – arrested and charged as the NorCal Rapist!

…and of course, I could go on.  I confess that it all leaves me somewhat at a loss, personally.  We’ve been on alert since The Donald won the presidential election, vowing to stand vigilant, to resist, to move the country back into the progressive mainstream.  But we’re tired.  How do we cope?

I take slivers of hope from a few recent sources:

  • Earlier this month, Barack Obama slammed the Trump administration and addressed us all in a speech at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  The line that stood out to me and continues to hold me up was, “If you’re willing to fight for it, things do get better.”  And, “Better is good….Better is good.”

    Image result for barack obamaMaking democracy work means holding on to our principles, having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. And it also means appreciating that progress does not happen all at once, but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you’re willing to fight for it, things do get better….Better is good.

  • Image result for flake and coons
    Senators Jeff Flake and Chris Coons

    Now just yesterday, we saw a composed survivor of sexual assault and a historically intemperate and deeply suspect judicial candidate followed by two US Senators, a Democrat and a Republican, reaching a sensible compromise on the horns of the partisan dilemma in the U.S. Senate.  Watching the proceedings from afar, we sat by, most of us helpless and dreading the outcome.  But those who could, opted for public outrage, with signs and shouting.  A few incredibly brave ones went public with their stories, and two made history confronting a Republican Senator in an elevator booth.  The combined efforts of all these activists stopped the elevator ride for Brett Kavanaugh – at least for a week.  Definitely NOT perfect… but BETTER.

  • Here in Benicia, the clearly partisan attack of a telephone “push poll” could have powerful electoral results going into our local election.  We probably will never know to what degree.  Yet, it’s GOOD that our City Attorney is looking into it, with a tough communication to the company that was hired to phone us with an attack on Kari Birdseye and thinly disguised promotional statements for one of her opponents.  It’s good that the City’s Image result for push pollOpen Government Commission will hold a last-minute public hearing on November 3rd, giving candidates a chance to defend against hit pieces and misinformation.  It’s good that there are a number of public hearings in our small town where we can go listen to and ask questions of the candidates themselves.  See the schedule of forums at birdseyeforbenicia.com/candidate-forums.
  • Here in Benicia, I have come under personal attack for favoring one candidate, Kari Birdseye, over other credible opponents.  The Solano County Democrats and Progressive Democrats have been criticized for endorsing only Kari while the Labor Council and its member unions endorse without blame.  (Well, except for complaints by some of our Benicia teachers, who resent the controlling influence over their endorsement by the Labor Council.)  Kari Birdseye is in my opinion far and away the most environmentally aware, progressive and highly qualified candidate for City Council.  I personally hope that Christina Strawbridge comes in second.  It will be great – no, GREAT – in this #MeToo year to have 3 qualified women on our City Council.  But my first priority has been and remains, to secure a seat for Kari Birdseye.  See more at birdseyeforbenicia.com.
  • Image result for facts speak louder than wordsHere in Benicia, there are excellent substantiated reasons why NOT to vote for City Council candidate Lionel Largaespada.  His registration as a Republican aside, he stood with Valero and Texas executives and attorneys in favor of dangerous and dirty oil trains cutting over the mountains and through California to Benicia.  He was paid to help defeat a 2012 California tobacco tax initiative that would have funded cancer research.  His friendly outreach and community service is notable, but he is undeniably a supporter of big business, and has demonstrated that he was impervious to community activist’s efforts to educate and organize for environmental health and the safety of the community.  Let’s cast our votes and hope that the Council can proceed without that kind of drag on a bright future for our beloved city.
  • Finally, here in Benicia our local news is disappearing.  Cutbacks at the Benicia Herald and the Vallejo Times-Herald have meant that increasingly, regular citizens have no idea what is going on at City Hall.  We are assuredly in a “news desert.”  As of this writing, yesterday was Benicia Herald editor Nick Sestanovich’s last day, and there’s no news as yet as to his replacement.  GivenImage result for news desertsthe Benicia Herald’s poor track record of owner support for staff AND the hard financial times for print media in general, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the paper close.  Wait and see.  (Nick’s good-bye is a poignant moment in local news.)
    The Vallejo paper covers Vallejo, with only an occasional nod to Benicia news.  Mostly we only see press releases issued by the city of Benicia and police and fire departments.  The Times-Herald  can only do so much with so few staff since Katy St. Clair was let go.  (Note that both Nick and Katy went to work in Vacaville.  No news desert up there.)
    Where can we look for BETTER here?  Not perfect, but better?  Increasingly, we must rely on digital media, like The Benicia Independent, NextDoor, Facebook’s BeniciaHappenings, Patch, and Google groups like BeniciaResist!  Definitely far from perfect.  Let’s make those sources BETTER.

Well, if you made it through this lengthy analysis, you deserve a thanks and kudos.  I’ll try to be more regular with my newsletters in the future.  Nice chatting with you – let’s all make Benicia a BETTER place.

Roger Straw