Rail safety urged after fire

GRAETTINGER, Iowa - A fiery train derailment in rural Iowa that burned for more than 36 hours has at least one group suggesting that the industry should move faster to upgrade aging rail tankers.

A Union Pacific train hauling 100 tankers full of ethanol from Omaha, Neb., derailed around 1 a.m. Friday on a trestle bridge near Graettinger, about 160 miles northwest of Des Moines. It sent off the tracks 27 tanker cars considered by federal investigators as older, less sturdy tanks set to be phased out over the next dozen years.

“God forbid this happens in a community or with people sitting in their cars waiting for the train to go by. It’s not like we haven’t seen that kind of tragedy before,” said Karen Darch, cochair of an Illinois-based coalition of local officials, called TRAC, that has pushed for rail safety enhancements. The group was formed after a 2009 derailment of ethanol tankers killed a woman at a crossing in Cherry Valley, Ill. Darch is village president of neighboring Barrington, Ill.

Since 2006, there have been at least seven significant accidents involving trains hauling ethanol that released a combined 2 million gallons of the fuel.

Federal rules enacted in 2015 call for replacing or retrofitting the aging, soda can-shaped rail tankers by 2029, although most would have to come off the tracks sooner. Those that carry ethanol would have to be replaced by 2023.

“We would love to see the industry stepping up and beating the deadline the law has given them,” Darch said.