“The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a ‘new safety rule’ for oil trains this morning that will not only fail to prevent an explosive disaster, but also does not apply to Capital Region cities as they do not meet the federally-set parameters to be considered ‘high-threat urban communities.’ This new rule calls for a train speed reduction in ‘high-threat urban communities’ to 40 mph; however, the last two major explosive events happened at speeds of less than 25 mph.

“Any so-called safety rule that does not mandate stabilization of the volatile crude oil does not truly provide community safety. Furthermore, in the district I represent alone, these oil trains travel right past a nursery school and pre-school, an elementary and middle school, a baseball field and a local park, a densely populated residential community that has been in existence for over a hundred years, restaurants, numerous small businesses, state and local infrastructure and utility operators, the Hudson River, and a host of other highly vulnerable locations, while spanning three separate municipalities. A potential explosive derailment caused by these oil trains, which the FRA is required to oversee, would be catastrophic. It is hard to imagine a community more directly impacted by this situation. This is simply unacceptable.”