Derailments reveal lack of leadership on transport safety

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Last Thursday morning a train derailment and fire forced the partial evacuation of Raymond, Minn. Just a little more than a month has passed since a freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, subjecting the residents of the town and surrounding areas to serious health risks.

These rail incidents, and many others across the country, underscore many of the increased risks Minnesotans will face now that the $30 billion merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railways was approved on March 15.

Approval of the merger means an increase in the number and size of trains passing through our towns, behind our homes, and near our schools and playgrounds. Payloads include hazardous cargoes such as flammable Canadian tar sands crude oil; ethanol, which caught fire in Raymond; and a host of harmful chemicals, including vinyl chloride. This highly toxic substance used in the manufacture of plastics — including, shockingly, the PVC pipe used to carry water into households across the country — is also presenting the greatest public health risk for residents in East Palestine at the moment.

This isn't alarmism, nor is it just my opinion. Over the past nearly two years, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) — the agency that approved the merger — has collected thousands of comments from residents, elected officials and other experts, many from Minnesota, expressing these and other concerns about the now-approved merger. But despite this feedback, the final environmental impact statement released by the STB exactly one week before the East Palestine derailment found that the biggest negative environmental impact from the merger would be increased train noise. That is nonsense.

Another accident like the one in East Palestine, a risk that increases with more train traffic, would far exceed the environmental impact of any train noise. In fact, due to the highly toxic and volatile nature of the chemicals carried by the East Palestine train, first responders chose to release the payload and burn it because the contents of several cars were "unstable and could potentially explode, causing deadly disbursement of shrapnel and toxic fumes" — an even bigger catastrophe in their calculus. This burn has released the chemicals into the air.

While these accidents are horrible for the people of Raymond and Ohio, the sheer scale of the health impact such a derailment could have in a more populated area is almost unimaginable.

The Biden administration response in the wake of the Ohio incident was disappointing. Federal officials failed to respond adequately to resident concerns and failed to show up at town halls with residents. In fact, it took three weeks for Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to travel to East Palestine. President Joe Biden opted for overseas trips instead of visiting the disaster area, a move the mayor of the town called "the biggest slap in the face."

Their response to the concerns about the CP-KCS merger — before it was approved and even after approval — has been similarly disappointing.

It is time for the Biden administration to show some leadership on the issues facing America's railways. It should take a step back to think through the rules and regulations we have in place involving the shipment of hazardous materials. It would also be wise for there to be an evaluation regarding the increased risks of bringing longer, more dangerous trains through heavily populated areas.

Raising concerns about accidents and what this merger will mean for us, our kids, and our communities isn't noise. The city of Raymond and all Minnesotans deserve a more robust discussion than what the members of the Surface Transportation Board gave it. The merger may be approved, but that won't stop the discussion about rail safety and the fight to improve it.