Tom Crouser: Are railroad tracks a threat? (Opinion)

The average freight train in the late 1800s was about 25 cars in length. Today’s typical freight train can extend to up to 145 cars (1.9 miles) although there are instances where a freight train can reach 295 cars (3.4 miles).

For most of the 1900s, freight train crews consisted of five workers: a conductor, two trainmen or brakemen, an engineer and a fireman. Today, most road freights operate with just two crew members — a conductor and an engineer.

What’s more, the railroad industry says that, with today’s “positive train control,” a train can operate with only one crewman, the engineer. Positive train control uses the technology of GPS, radio signs and computers to prevent train collisions and other accidents. So, trains are longer, faster, and operate with fewer crewmen than before.

What’s as important, if not more so, is what they can transport. No longer is it just cattle, coal and packaged goods. They can transport hazardous chemicals and compounds that weren’t even invented in the 1800s. Compounds like vinyl chloride, also known as vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) or chloroethene. There were five tank cars full of the stuff on the train that derailed in East Palestine.

Vinyl chloride is primarily used to produce polymer polyvinyl chloride (think PVC pipes). As such, VCM is among the top 20 petrochemicals (petroleum-derived chemicals) in terms of production volume in the world. The United States remains the largest manufacturer because of our low-production-cost position in chlorine and ethylene raw materials.

Vinyl chloride is a flammable gas and can enter our air and drinking water supplies. It’s often found near landfills and, chillingly, it was used as a refrigerant and aerosol propellant before the 1970s.

Because of its low boiling point, liquid VCM will undergo flash evaporation upon its release to the atmosphere. The portion vaporized will form a dense cloud twice as heavy as the surrounding air with the risk of subsequent explosion or fire being significant.

Burning of vinyl chloride monomer might release toxic hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide and trace levels of phosgene (used as a weapon in World War I that can damage the skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs). As a gas mixed with air, VCM is a fire and explosion hazard.

In addition to its risk of toxicity, transporting VCM also presents the same risks as transporting other flammable gases, such as propane, butane or natural gas. Besides, each tank car typically carries between 6,500 gallons to 31,000 gallons of liquids.

Because of the danger, some trains carrying these loads must be designated as high-hazard flammable unit trains, which necessitate additional safety requirements, additional routing precautions (such as notification of communities along the way), speed reductions to 50 mph (40 mph in urban areas), specialized braking — either a two-way end-of-train device or a distributed power system, and specialized tank cars that meet higher crash- and corrosion-resistant specifications.

However, for these safety requirements to kick in, a single train must have 70 or more loaded tank cars containing Class 3 flammable liquid (such as vinyl chloride monomer).

The East Palestine train had only five.

Trains have more cars than before, have fewer crew members and carry more hazardous materials. Seems like we should require them to be safer than we do. Maybe reducing the number of hazardous tank cars for HHFUT designation would be a start.