While North American companies can consider shipping hazardous materials by sea, geography makes it more difficult in North America than in Europe. However, given the frequency and volume of hazardous materials transported by rail, other safety measures may be considered to prevent disasters such as the one that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio.
Train length
An American freight train can easily be up to 150 railcars long. Harrod says his European colleagues cannot believe that a 150-car freight train carrying hazardous materials could be allowed to derail and harm the environment.
“This is something that no one here can ever understand,” Harrod says. “An incident like this here would be unbelievable and incomprehensible.”
Part of the reason European experts don’t believe this is that most freight trains, depending on the country, can’t be more than 700 meters long. Harrod says North American trains can be up to 2,100 meters long. Fewer rail cars create fewer opportunities for a faulty rail car to derail an entire train.
“Shorter trains also mean much better train dynamics,” explains Harrod, who points to the slower movement and transfer of power between rail cars. “A longer train has more slow motion, which is a major cause of these derailments,” Harrod says.
