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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 2/7:

Re-inventing the DOT 111
Railcar suppliers gear up to meet demand for safety-first tank cars.

For tank car builders—American Railcar Industries, The Greenbrier Cos., National Steel Car, Texana Tank Car, Trinity Industries, Union Tank Car—the business outlook for the next five years is good, as demand for tank cars continues to surpass builder capacity. The RSI's year-end 2013 report showed deliveries of 28,996 tank cars, and a backlog of 55,386. With builder capacity expected to be approximately 30,000 cars per year, this backlog will take close to two years to fill.

The tank car building boom is tempered by a regulatory climate in which new safety standards are the subject of intense discussion among railroads, carbuilders, lessors, and oil producers. Following several serious accidents involving crude oil trains, as well as the discovery that crude oil from Bakken shale deposits extracted by hydraulic fracturing is particularly volatile, the PHMSA, FRA, and Transport Canada are expected to impose new standards for DOT 111 (AAR 211) non-pressurized tank cars handling hazardous materials, specifically those transporting Class 3 PG (Packing Group) I and II denatured ethanol and crude oil. That's not expected to happen until 2015, despite calls by politicians to speed up the usually lengthy federal rulemaking process.

The industry has not waited for a rulemaking to manufacture stronger tank cars. Since October 2011, well before the CBR (crude by rail) boom started, all DOT 111s have been built far sturdier than their predecessors.

SNIP

The industry watches—and waits—for regulatory bodies to decide exactly what the rules will be.

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