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Canada to ban rail cars involved in fiery crash

The tank cars will no longer be able to transport crude oil or other risky goods on Canadian railways as of November 1.

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Transport Minister Marc Garneau is set to announce the change on Monday.

Accident investigators have said the cars tend to puncture during derailments, sometimes causing fires.

The decision, which moves Canada’s retrofit schedule further ahead of the United States, was partly prompted by a sharp drop in oil prices since 2014 that has cut the volume of crude transported by rail.

The cars are the same model involved in the deadly Lac-Megantic rail disaster three years ago in which 47 people lost their lives.

“All rail tank cars transporting flammable liquids entering Canada, whether in transit or as a final destination, must meet the Canadian phase-out schedule”, the minister’s office said in a statement.

Forty-seven people were killed when a train carrying oil exploded in Lac-Mégantic.

Raitt and Fox also announced that all DOT-111s would have to retrofitted or phased out for the use of crude oil by 2018 and all other rail cars transporting any risky, flammable liquid would have to meet new safety requirements by 2025.

Some older tankers, called DOT-111 cars, had been scheduled to go out of service on May 1, 2017. Michael Bourque, the president and CEO of the Railway Association of Canada, said the government’s plan, which was in step with similar efforts in the United States, was an effective and welcome step at improving rail safety. He didn’t have a precise number for the cars with the protective layer.

Tom Williamson, a Florida-based broker and owner of Transportation Consultants, said the new deadlines would not likely lead to tank auto shortages. The department estimates that the railway industry still has a North America-wide inventory of 28,000 of the old DOT-111s and adds that the aging train hardware can still be used for other cargos rated as less hazardous than oil.

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“I have never seen so many offers for leases in my career”.

Ottawa to phase out DOT-111 rail tank cars ahead of schedule