The US Department of Transportation said its Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration plan to rescind a requirement that electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes be used on certain rail tank cars. The American Petroleum Institute welcomed DOT’s Dec. 4 announcement.
The determination was made with congressionally mandated input from the National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board, US Government Accountability Office, and FRA studies, which found that the cost-benefit analyses were not sufficient justification for mandating ECP brakes, DOT said.
It said NAS determined it was unable to make a conclusive statement regarding the emergency performance of ECP brakes relative to other braking systems. In addition, the updated regulatory impact analysis incorporated recommendations from GAO audits and updated costs and benefits of the ECP brake provision based on current economic conditions. DOT said this review demonstrated that the mandate’s costs would exceed the benefits it would produce threefold.
Given the lack of evidence in favor of ECP braking systems, an API official urged DOT and the industry agencies to pursue other efforts to improve rail safety.
“Safety is a core value throughout the entire natural gas and oil industry,” said API Midstream and Industry Operations Group Director Robin Rorick. “The safety impacts of ECP brakes are marginal at best and mandating implementation of these systems ignores concerns about their reliability, availability, and intrinsic safety while various other braking technologies have been proven reliable and effective.”
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