Senate Working to Strip Braking Safety Requirements From Oil
As documented on DeSmog, the new oil-by-rail regulations contain major concessions to the oil and rail industries as the result of relentless lobbyingduring the rulemaking process. One logical safety measure that the rail industry failed to block from the new rules was a requirement for modern braking systems know as electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.
However, the rail industry has a Plan B to avoid modernizing their braking systems and so far it is working quite well.
In late June, the Republican-controlled Senate Commerce Committee approved a measure to drop the ECP braking requirement and instead order years of new research, a delay tactic favored by Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) railroad.
Of course, no research is needed to review the existing air braking systems because they were invented in the 1860s, and in the past 150 years their limitations have become well known.
“Anytime you put the air on, you’re subject for something to go wrong,” explained Dana Maryott, director of locomotive and air-brake systems at the BNSF Railway.
In the above statement, the phrase “put the air on” refers to applying braking on freight trains.
“We’ve had long trains where the engineer released the brake and started pulling a little bit too early, while the brakes were still set on the rear of the train,” explained Maryott, “And coming around a sharp radius, we’ve literally pulled the train off the track.”
Maryott was explaining some of the risks of air braking systems for a 2009 article for the engineering publication theIEEE Spectrum.
That article explained how ECP brakes were a modernized and superior braking system.
In a 2010 Progressive Railroading article about rail braking and safety, Larry Breeden, general manager of operating practices for Union Pacific railroad, gave his positive opinion on ECP brakes.
“The effectiveness of the brakes is advanced. It gets instantaneous braking, plus I can graduate the release. It gives better train control and reduced fuel consumption. You also get better brake shoe and wheel life.”
