NTSB calls for phaseout of DOT-111 cars amid derailment investigation

Following the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation into a 2024 derailment in North Dakota, the board has reiterated its recommendation to accelerate the planned phaseout of DOT-111 tank cars. Additionally, the agency raised concerns about the safety of DOT-117R cars transporting hazardous materials and called for safer placements of hazmat cars in train consists.

The inciting incident occurred July 5, 2024, when 29 rail cars, including 17 hazmat tank cars, derailed after a CPKC train traversed a broken rail caused by a track bed collapse from a degraded culvert in Bordulac, North Dakota, NTSB officials said in a press release.

The derailed tank cars included DOT-111s, DOT-112s and DOT 117s. Methanol released from some derailed cars led to a pool fire. The heat from the pool fire caused thermal tears on three other derailed tank cars, which released anhydrous ammonia, a poisonous-by-inhalation gas. In all, nine hazmat tank cars were breached during or after the derailment. No injuries were reported.

The Bordulac accident is one of the first major hazmat-release derailments the NTSB has investigated since the 2023 Norfolk Southern Railway incident in East Palestine, Ohio. As in East Palestine, it was DOT-111 tank cars that released hazmat contents in the Bordulac derailment, NTSB officials said.

In its investigation of the Bordulac derailment, the board found that the continued use of DOT-117R tank cars, which are retrofitted DOT-111 tank cars that have a thinner shell, has not resulted in the same safety improvements as the newly built DOT-117J cars. DOT-111 cars are "dangerously inadequate," as they are highly vulnerable to punctures during derailments, NTSB officials said.

The board has issued 11 new recommendations to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Association of American Railroads, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association and CPKC. It also reiterated six recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and the PHMSA, including the phaseout of DOT-111s.