Canada to Phase Out Older Crude-by-Rail Tank Cars Early
Canada will take older tank cars out of crude-by-rail service months earlier than originally planned, the government said on Monday, its latest move to toughen rail safety in the wake of a deadly 2013 crash.
Some of the older tankers, called DOT-111 cars, had been scheduled to go out of service on May 1, 2017, with a jacketed version of the older cars set to phase out March 1, 2017. Both types of cars will now be taken out of service by Nov. 1, 2016, a spokeswoman from the federal transport minister's office said.
Accident investigators have said the cars tend to puncture during derailments, sometimes causing fires. The runaway train that derailed and exploded, leveling part of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic and killing 47 people in 2013 was made up of DOT-111 tank cars.
(Reporting by Allison Martell)
