County Leaders Call on Feds to Tighten Rail Security

(TNS) – Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger and municipal leaders across the county are calling on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Federal Railroad Administration to strengthen safety regulations and require railroad companies to invest in maintenance, upgrades and staffing in order to prevent accidents like the one in Ohio from happening in Ulster County.

In a March 15 letter to Buttigeg and Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose , the elected officials expressed “deep concern” about what they called inadequate federal regulations governing the transport of hazardous materials by rail. And they called “unacceptable” the lack of investment to protect public health and safety by railroad companies “at a time when (they) are reporting record earnings.”

The three-page letter on Ulster County letterhead was signed by Metzger, Kingston Mayor Steve Noble, supervisors of the towns of Ulster, Marlborough, Esopus, New Paltz, Woodstock Gardiner, Olive, Rosendale, Lloyd, and Saugerties and the mayors of the villages of New Paltz and Ellenville.

“In our community, as in many others across the nation, rail infrastructure is inadequately maintained and presents unacceptable risks and hazards,” the letter states. “Over the years, our communities have documented many concerning conditions, including unsafe bridges, dilapidated crossings and dangerous track conditions.”

According to the letter, 38 miles of the West Shore line runs through seven Ulster County municipalities, with 13 miles of track passing through seven communities along the Hudson River . On an annual basis, the letter states, more than 25 million tons of freight, including crude petroleum, waste industrial chemicals, motor vehicles and other goods are transported through those communities, with nearly 200 trains passing over 30 at-grade crossings each week.

“Human-caused disasters like East Palestine and Lac-Megantic illustrate all too well the disastrous combination of inadequate safety and hazardous cargo,” the letter states, adding that with 100,000 residents depending on the Hudson River for drinking water “a large rail accident along the shores of the Hudson River would be disastrous.”

The municipal leaders called on the two agencies to: require tank cars carrying hazardous materials to meet DOT-117 safety standards; the fleetwide replacement of pneumatic braking systems, which they said is Civil War-era technology, with modern electronic brakes; and the wider deployment of technology like defect detectors and hotbox sensors that can detect and prevent accidents.

They also called on the agencies to hold rail companies to minimum staffing levels; to increase minimum fines for safety violations to levels that “actually affect corporate behavior”; strengthen regulations regarding trains blocking at-grade crossings; and increase funding for emergency personnel responding to major train accidents.

They also said the county’s emergency management coordinators must be given advance notice of the types and amounts of materials going through the communities.

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