New, safer US rail cars gather dust as ethanol trains grow longer

[John Ashworth]

New, safer U.S. rail cars gather dust even as ethanol trains grow longer

ethanol shippers are still primarily using the type of rail cars that were deemed too unsafe to carry crude after the Quebec disaster, even though the biofuel is more explosive than oil.

Thousands of replacement cars meant to better withstand an accident are sitting idle in rail yards around the country because the ethanol industry is not required to use them for another six years and as they cost about three time as much as the older cars...