Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal • June 22, 2015 www.wbjournal.com WORCESTER << 905 Hartford Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA 01545 tel. 508.842.1213 • www.elevationee.com Before After Before After CUSTOM RENTAL GLOBAL GRAPHICS EVENTS PORTABLES UPGRADE YOUR SPACE • CORPORATE OFFICE DESIGN & INSTALL 1309 Beacon Street, Suite 325 Brookline, MA 02446 Tel.857.600.9224 Fax. 617.274.5701 www.jdfactors.com J D FACTORS IS NOW IN BOSTON! Ready to support your cash flow needs! 95% advances, custom pricing programs, and highly rewarding broker referral programs! T ons of freight roll daily into and out of Worcester on tracks used by CSX, Pan Am Railways and the Providence & Worcester railroads. As the economy continues to bounce back from the Great Recession, freight transporta- tion is growing as well, bringing more goods of all kinds through the region on the rails — everything from cars and toilet paper to flammable liquids and hazardous materials. By law, these railroads must offer rea- sonable terms on shipping of hazardous materials, especially flammable goods such as oil and ethanol. The amount of flammable material shipped through any area is difficult to enumerate. While railroad and safety officials have access to databases detail- ing shipments, the information is private due to security and other concerns. Shipments of flammable liquids have grown, as have all other railroad ship- ments, according to Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. The shipments of oil, while still a small part of all rail ship- ments, have grown as U.S. and Canadian oil production has increased. Worcester official: Public is safe Disasters involving trains that carry flammable liquids, such as the deaths of 47 people in a derailment in Quebec in 2013 and another in West Virginia that set 3 million gallons of oil on fire, have drawn attention to these shipments and the regulations surrounding them. But people who live and work in Worcester should not be concerned about these flammable materials being shipped through the area, Deputy Fire Chief John Sullivan said. The Fire Department has access to databases and is aware of the types of shipments moving through the area, he said. Most of the railroads that run through the city don't transport much flammable material, he said. Providence & Worcester (P&W) shipments tend to be ethanol while CSX deals mostly in propane and other petrochemicals, Sullivan said. The fire department takes necessary precautionary steps, he said, but goods need to move through the area. New regulations In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation released new rules to improve the safety of the ongoing trans- portation of flammable materials. The rules include speed restrictions — 40 mph in urban areas, 50 mph elsewhere — for high-hazard trains that include a continuous block of 20 or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid, or 35 or more of those tank cars dispersed throughout a train. There are also guidelines on a new tanker design and retrofitting require- ments on older tankers scheduled to be implemented by 2023. The new regula- tions regarding the tanker cars will most- ly affect producers, shipping companies and those that rent train cars, Pan Am spokeswoman Cynthia Scarano said, explaining that most railroads actually own only a small percentage, if any, of the cars they transport. P&W's secretary and general counsel, Charles D. Rennick, declined to com- ment on flammable shipments in the area, but said the company will abide by any new regulations and doesn't expect they will impact freight service. Pan Am transports 8.4 million net tons of traffic through Massachusetts every year on 2,000 miles of track. The railroad already abides by a 30-mph limit while moving hazardous or flammable materi- als through urban areas, Scarano said. Reduced speed is not an issue for the relatively local railroad, but it could cause traffic problems along longer lines that traverse the country, Scarano said. For CSX, a national carrier, hazardous and flammable materials are reported as part of its chemicals portfolio and repre- sent about 9 percent (in volume) of the freight its moves, CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle said. The company has already reduced the speed limit for trains carrying 20 or more tankers of crude oil, ethanol and other flammable commodities in federally des- ignated "high threat urban areas" to 40 mph, consistent with federal require- ments, according to Doolittle. "The operational impact of these new rules is limited, especially in areas like Massachusetts where flammable materi- als comprise a small portion of the freight that we carry," he said. n City, rail carriers stress safety in shipments of oil, other flammables BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer 9.5 10.8 29.6 65.7 233.7 407.8 493.1 Carloads of shipped crude oil (In thousands) '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 More oil, more shipments The number of rail cars shipping oil in the U.S. grew by a factor of more than 50 from 2008 to 2014. Source: Association of American Railroads

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