Rail Line Relocation Grants

There is a brief article on ProgressiveRailroading.com about the recent release of seven Rail Line Relocation and Improvement Grants by the Federal Railroad Administration. Two of those grants were used to relocate train yards and two were used to relocate rail lines. This grant program was created under the SAFETEA-LU Act and are intended to “improve rail safety, motor vehicle traffic flow or a community’s ‘quality of life,’”. I have long maintained that one of the reasons (though certainly not the only reason) that there are so many rail shipments of TIH chemicals through urban areas is that that is where the rail lines and rail yards are. Too many cities and towns grew up around their rail lines and yards. The relocation of rail yards outside of urban areas will help reduce the potential risk of a catastrophic release of TIH chemicals in an urban area. There is no indication in the article that these four grants were (or were not) designed to reduce the risk of urban releases of TIH chemicals. Besides that is not a focus of the grant program. Hopefully, though, this grant program, which is in its last year, will be re-authorized with additional funding specifically targeted in the relocation of yards and lines that handle significant amounts of TIH chemicals. That would help to ensure that intelligent rerouting decisions easy to make.