REMARKS FOR THE HONORABLE MARY E. PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
RAIL HAZMAT ROUTING RULE NEWS CONFERENCE
PUEBLO, CO
APRIL 16, 2008
12:00 PM
Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming today. I greatly appreciate Federal
Railroad Administrator Joe Boardman and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administrator Carl Johnson being here with me to tour the Department of
Transportation’s railroad research and test facility on the celebration of its
40th anniversary.
I also want to thank Ed Hamberger of the Association of American Railroads and
Roy Allen of Transportation Technology Center, Inc. for doing a fine job in
managing this site. This is an example of how public-private partnerships can
lead to significant transportation safety improvements.
I have come here today to announce the Bush Administration is taking another
strong step to better ensure that hazardous materials traveling by rail reach
their destinations safely, and without incident.
Under a new federal rule made public today, every train carrying the most toxic
and dangerous hazardous materials must travel on the safest and most secure
route.
The goal of this rule is not to prohibit the movement of these hazardous
materials. Moving commodities such as chlorine and anhydrous ammonia by rail is
absolutely vital to our national economy. Only trains can transport the large
quantities needed by farmers, water treatment agencies, and manufacturers to
grow our food, purify our drinking water, and produce the goods we use everyday.
Railroads have an excellent record transporting hazardous materials, and I want
to thank the industry for the aggressive steps they’ve taken to improve safety.
The new rule we are announcing today will further reduce risk and enhance safety
for thousands of communities across America.
Beginning June first, we will require railroads to conduct a comprehensive
safety and security risk analysis of a primary route and at least one
commercially viable alternate route. The analysis must consider a minimum of
twenty-seven risk factors including trip length, existing safety and security
measures, and population density. Railroads must complete their analyses and
implement their final route selections by September of 2009.
In addition, this rule has several security related provisions designed to guard
against the possibility of someone tampering with hazmat rail cars during
transportation. Specifically, railroads must have plans to address en route
storage, delays in transit, and are required to perform a pre-trip inspection of
hazmat rail cars.
Beyond requiring selection of the safest and most secure rail routes, the Bush
Administration is taking aggressive action to strengthen and improve the safety
of the tank cars that carry hazardous materials.
Just two weeks ago, we announced a revolutionary proposal to increase by 500
percent on average the amount of energy a hazmat tank car must absorb during a
train accident before a catastrophic failure occurs.
This dramatic improvement in the puncture resistance of hazmat tank cars can be
achieved through innovative designs, materials, and technologies available today
and in combination with operating speed restrictions. We crashed several tank
cars right here at this test facility in support of this proposal, and we will
crash a few more before we are done. We expect to make a final decision in 2009.
The risk of a serious train accident involving the release of the most toxic and
dangerous hazardous material is being significantly reduced, and people living
in big cities and rural communities alike will be better safeguarded.
And, emergency responders like the ones here with me, who earlier held a
training exercise at a simulated full scale train derailment, will have the
comfort of knowing we are trying to reduce risk.
Our rail hazmat safety rules are designed to keep emergency responders as busy
as the Maytag repairman.
But in case the need for their services arises, today I am also announcing that
the Department of Transportation has issued a new hazmat response guidebook—and
we have made it available electronically for the first time. That means first
responders will have immediate access to critical information they need to
handle any hazmat situation.
In addition, our colleagues over at the Department of Homeland Security’s
Transportation Security Administration are expected to publish later this year a
final rule that will ensure, among other things, the secure hand-off of hazmat
rail cars all along the chain of custody from the shipper to the railroads to
the final receiver.
With these rules, we’ve put into place a comprehensive approach that will
dramatically improve both the safety and security of transporting hazardous
materials by rail.
Thank you. I will now take the first question.
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Briefing
Room
