Trains running close to residential areas are nothing new; neither are efforts to mitigate issues involving derailments and transporting toxic materials.
By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
A study done 17 years ago on hazardous materials and security concerns for the Nation’s Capital included at least two alternatives that might have taken freight traffic completely out of the City of Fredericksburg and eliminated the danger highlighted by last week’s derailment in the Cobblestone Square neighborhood.
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) was charged in 2007 to find ways to detour freight traffic around D.C. and away from the U.S. Capitol where today it still comes within a mile of the seat of the government.
The concern was heightened by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the fiery derailment of a freight train in a Baltimore, Maryland, train tunnel in 2001. There was fear that some kind of an attack or an accident could cause a hazardous material leak threatening not just D.C neighborhoods, but Congress as well.
Seven alternatives were initially looked at by the NCPC, including two that would have taken freight traffic away from Fredericksburg altogether. One called for the improvement of an existing Norfolk Southern route through the Shenandoah Valley, totally bypassing the eastern side of Virginia. A second one would have diverted freight traffic on CSX tracks just south of Fredericksburg on new tracks in King George County which would take trains to a new bridge near Route 301 crossing the Potomac into Maryland.
The study eventually eliminated the western route because it would slow down freight traffic. It did indicate, however, that a route connecting the CSX tracks south of Fredericksburg to the old Dahlgren Railroad tracks and into Maryland was viable.
One of the pluses of that route was that it would take freight traffic off the entire 90 miles of the Viginia Railroad Express. That could have increased on-time performances and safety for both VRE and Amtrak, which currently use the same CSX tracks.
One of the other alternatives would have diverted freight trains north of Fredericksburg near the Quantico Marine Base with new track and a bridge taking them across the Potomac at Indian Head, Maryland, and connect to existing tracks there.
The third was aimed at improving the tunnels currently running into D.C and providing more protection for some above-ground tracks within the city.
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has been working to get the tracks away from the Capitol for over a decade, but her legislative assistant Sullivan Gassmann says the freight railroad industry and many of their customers have been effective in lobbying against any changes.
There is one bill in Congress now that could help the residents at Cobblestone Square if it passes. Norton has introduced legislation that would establish a grant program for the design and construction of barriers near residential areas that would cut down noise and provide some additional protection against derailments or accidents that might occur.
Gassman says, though, in the current political climate on Capitol Hill it’s unlikely to get through.
Congress never moved forward with the NCPC study’s findings, but there were some safety improvements introduced to freight rail after the serious derailment and explosion of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause of that crash was a hot railcar wheel bearing that sparked a fire and caused the derailment of cars carrying hazardous material.
The bill, titled the Railroad Safety Act of 2023, currently languishes in Congress. It includes a number of safety improvement provisions for freight rail and would increase civil penalties for noncompliance with the proposed new standards, including having at least two crew members and introducing some limits on the types of hazardous materials that could be transported.
At the same time, the Federal Railroad Administration has urged railroads to speed up the installation of new “wayside defect detectors” that can locate defects and potential failures in train car wheels. The so called “hot boxes” are recommended for every 15 miles along the nation’s 140,000 miles of track that pass through some 19,000 cities, towns and villages across the country.
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