The Railway Supply Institute Committee on Tank Cars (RSICTC) is urging the federal Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to support rulemaking that would enhance the safety of the North American tank car fleet.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, urged the U.S. Department of Transportation “to press for improved federal tank car regulations by requiring all tank cars used to transport flammable liquids to be retrofitted or phased out, and new cars built to more stringent standards.”
The Railway Supply Institute’s American Railway Car Institute (ARCI) Committee on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, released its railcar industry order, delivery, and backlog statistics for the third quarter, with tank cars and covered hopper cars continuing to account for most activity.
Those of you who know me well know that I was a brakeman on the Penn Central Railroad while in college. That was 45 years ago, but the recent crude-by-rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, has had me thinking back to my own near disaster involving tank cars in the summer of ’68.
American Railcar Industries, Inc. (ARI) reported second-quarter earnings of $23.6 million, or $1.11 per share, late Wednesday, July 24, 2013, following the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, surpassing Wall Street consensus estimates of 82 cents per share. ARI earned 63 cents per share in the second quarter of 2012.
Regular readers of this blog may remember that at the end of most of my writings on how the fracking industry is positively impacting our industry, I generally add a caveat regarding the future. I suggested that there would ultimately be one or more accidents involving crude-by-rail (CBR) or some of the NGLs (natural gas liquids) that fracking produces.
Figures released Wednesday by the Railway Supply Institute’s American Railway Car Institute (ARCI) Committee show 23,901 cars were ordered in the first quarter of 2013, while 11,952 cars were delivered, with a backlog of 71,704 cars, all up from the fourth quarter of 2012.