By Stephen Beech via SWNS
Longer freight trains are more likely to derail, according to new research.
The study follows the East Palestine disaster in the United States in February 2023 when 38 cars from a 151-carriage, a 9,300-foot-long freight train derailed in Ohio.
It led to the release of hazardous materials that required the evacuation of more than 2,000 residents.
Longer and heavier freight trains have become more common in recent years, mainly driven by fuel efficiency, cost-savings, and emissions reduction measures in the rail industry.
Now a new study has confirmed that longer freight trains bring with them a higher risk of derailment.
The findings, published in the journal Risk Analysis, show that a 100-car train is more than twice as likely to experience a derailment than a 50-car train.
The research team say that means that if the rail transport system employed 100-car trains rather than 50-car ones, requiring half as many trains overall, the systemwide risk of derailments would rise by around 11 percent.
The analysis used detailed information on U.S. freight train accidents over a 10-year period from 2013 to 2022.
There were around 35,000 reported incidents during the study period.
For their analysis, the researchers used a sample of about 3,000 incidents.
Study leader Professor Peter Madsen said: “Understanding derailment risk is an important component for evaluating the overall safety of the rail system and for the future development and regulation of freight rail transportation.”
Madsen, of Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business in Provo, Utah, added: “Given the limitations of the current data on freight train length, this study provides an important step toward such an understanding.”
In response to the Ohio derailment, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown introduced the Railway Safety Act which is still being debated.
If enacted, it would require the development of regulations regarding freight train length, among other things.
Several U.S. states are also currently considering state-level regulations regarding freight train length.
