Ottawa to phase out DOT-111 rail tank cars several months ahead of schedule
Ottawa will retire the older DOT-111 rail tanker cars — the ones involved in the deadly Lac-Megantic tragedy — several months earlier than planned, The Canadian Press has learned.
The tank cars will no longer be able to transport crude oil or other dangerous goods on Canadian railways as of Nov. 1.
That’s six months earlier than planned for “non-jacketed” cars — those without a layer of thermal protection — and 16 months earlier than cars with jackets, which were originally scheduled to be phased out by May 2018.
On July 6, 2013, a runaway freight train pulling 72 crude-oil laden DOT-111s derailed and exploded, killing 47 people and flattening downtown Lac-Megantic.