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Trump Admin to Overturn Obama-Era Rule Requiring New Braking System for “Bomb Trains”

HeadlineSep 25, 2018

The Trump administration is moving toward overturning an Obama-era safety rule that required trains carrying oil and other flammable material to have a modern electronically controlled braking system. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is arguing such a braking system would be too expensive. Such trains are sometimes referred to as bomb trains because of the danger they pose to local communities. In 2013, 47 people died in Quebec when a runaway train carrying volatile crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale exploded. Since 2010 there have been at least 20 derailments in the United States and Canada involving trains carrying oil and ethanol.

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