Spokesman Justin Jacobs’ statement was in response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s preliminary report on a June 3 fiery oil train derailment in the town of Mosier, Oregon.
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Union Pacific said an upgraded braking system would not have made a difference in the Mosier derailment. You’ve pretty much got to have employees visually inspecting track to ferret them out.
“The Federal Railroad Administration’s preliminary Mosier derailment report calls attention to serious safety concerns and the need for improved track inspections”, she said in a prepared statement.
The report comes one day after Union Pacific announced it would resume moving oil trains through the Columbia River Gorge despite pleas from local, state and federal officials to wait at least until safety can be enhanced. That’s despite pleas from ODOT to the feds that oil trains be put on ice until assurances can be made that broken bolts aren’t an issue on other segments of track.
“These are heavy cars when they’re fully loaded”, and a treatment to reduce the volatility of the Bakken crude makes the oil heavier, he said.
While today’s FRA report blames faulty track maintenance for the crash, in also notes that if the train had been equipped with better brakes, “two fewer tank cars may have derailed, and one less tank auto may have been punctured”.
States lack the power to halt train traffic on their own, so OR officials have been asking the Federal Railroad Administration to place a moratorium on the oil shipments until railroads and regulators can improve safety. Union Pacific also has expanded inspections of all its tracks in OR and Washington state, particularly in curved portions of track, he said.
The agency’s report also says if the train had been equipped with an electronic braking system it could’ve shortened the stopping distance and caused fewer cars to derail. The lag bolt is part of a fastening system that attaches the rail to ties. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to ask the FRA to place a moratorium on oil trains traveling through the Columbia River Gorge.
“We’re talking about upgrading a brake system that is from the Civil War era”, Feinberg said. Feinberg said it was the railroad’s responsibility to detect those problems.
The company defended its decision in a statement, reiterating the federal obligations it is under and highlighting the tiny fraction of its OR shipments – less than 1 percent – that come from oil trains.
Rail consultant and former industry regulator Steven Ditmeyer said a series of Burlington Northern derailments in the 1990s in Washington state all involved sheared off railroad spikes.
Feinberg said the federal government has recommended – and will soon require – that trains hauling crude oil use electronically controlled brakes. But in a letter sent last week to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Gov. Jay Inslee asked the department to take a number of precautions, including speeding up a transition to safer tanker cars and lowering speed limits.
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