Get oil-train safety efforts on track

With freight trains likely to rumble through the Rochester area laden with combustible crude oil for the foreseeable future, the private company that operates the rails, and state and federal authorities who provide oversight, must make safety a top priority. Reducing the volatility of the crude oil and ensuring local railroad bridges are not structurally compromised are two steps in the right direction.

As staff writer Steve Orr detailed in Sunday’s watchdog report, railroad bridges have long fallen through the cracks of government oversight. As a result, some of them have developed cracks of their own — and worse. The CSX bridge that carries trains over North Main Street in the village of Pittsford, for example, is riddled with loose bolts, rust and corrosion.

Company officials insist that, optics aside, the bridge — one of several in Monroe County that are more than 100 years old — is structurally sound. But they won’t make public copies of inspection reports, and the bridges get no second pair of eyes: Neither state nor federal agencies regularly inspect railroad bridges or receive inspection reports.

Village residents deserve greater assurances, especially since the rail line is now used regularly to transport crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in Montana and North Dakota to East Coast refineries. After all, a number of rail accidents have taken place in the past year, resulting in fires and explosions — including the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, where a train derailment and explosion killed 47 residents.

With such incidents in mind, officials in North Dakota are looking at requiring crude oil to be partially refined — which would make it less volatile — before being transported. This is a much-needed extra safety step, given that nearly 60 percent of the 1 million-plus gallons of crude pumped from North Dakota alone each day is shipped by rail.

Other security measures have been adopted. CSX has increased track inspections and emergency preparedness training. New York has decided to share schedules for oil-carrying trains with the public. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Transportation is taking public comment on tougher proposed safety rules that would see outdated tankers retired or retrofitted, lower speed limits, better braking standards and other measures. These improvements must be expedited.

The number of rail cars transporting crude has increased some 400 percent since 2008. Safety standards have not kept up. Private, state and federal interests must fast-track security improvements.