Canada to accelerate oil train car phaseout

Canadian regulators are pushing up the deadline for old tank cars to be banned from carrying crude oil.

Tank cars that do not meet new safety standards from Canada’s federal government must not carry oil after Nov. 1 under a new schedule due to be formally announced Monday, CBC News reported.

That’s six months earlier than the original phase-out timeline for non-jacketed cars, which don’t have additional steel jackets, and 18 months than what was previously scheduled for jacketed cars.

The accelerated timeline is one of the latest steps that Canadian regulators have taken to improve oil-by-rail safety, following a July 2013 derailment and explosion in Quebec that killed 47.

Officials in Canada and the United States have rushed to improve oil train safety after that disaster and a series of other derailments and explosions since then.

Both countries last year finalized regulations setting new standards for oil tank cars and deadlines for getting the old cars retrofitted or off the rails. In the United States, older cars can remain in service for years.

New standards on both sides of the board also include rules on operation, inspection and other aspects of oil train use.