Railroad industry continues making progress converting tank cars to safer standards

The number of tank cars meeting the DOT-117 specification and phaseout dates for all other tank cars.

In accordance with the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released its Progress Towards Safer Rail Tank Cars Transporting Flammable Liquids: 2025 Report. The report discusses the progress in upgrading the rail tank car fleet to the DOT-117 standard, which meets new safety requirements, and summarizes the types of rail tank cars carrying Class 3 flammable liquids. There is a rolling phase-out schedule of tank cars based on both tank car type and flammable liquids carried.

There were no phaseout deadlines during 2024, and all tank cars were in compliance with the FAST Act. The next major deadline was May 1, 2025, when jacketed CPC-1232 tank cars were prohibited from carrying ethanol and crude oil and all DOT-111 and CPC-1232 tank cars were prohibited from carrying other flammable liquids in packing group I. Compliance with 2025 phaseouts will be evaluated in the 2026 report.

Inventory of rail tank cars carrying Class 3 flammable liquids by year

In 2024, 101,116 rail tank cars were used to carry Class 3 flammable liquids, a 0.2 percent increase from 2023. In 2016, only 8 percent of the fleet that carries crude oil and other Class 3 flammable liquids consisted of DOT-117s (new or retrofitted), compared to 73 percent in 2024. For crude oil alone, 98.7 percent of the tank car fleet consisted of DOT-117s, up from 96 percent in 2023.

Based on a survey of facilities capable of building and/or retrofitting DOT-117 and DOT-117R, respectively, 3,546 new DOT-117 tank cars are projected to be built 2025 and 890 DOT-117R tank cars are projected to be retrofitted, for a total of 4,436 additional DOT-117/DOT-117R tanks projected in 2025.

The annual BTS report is required under FAST Act, Section 7308. Additionally, Section 7308(c) requires BTS to estimate the anticipated number of DOT-117 tank cars for each year from 2018 through 2029 by collecting data from tank car shops that build or retrofit tank cars. It is expected that, by the end of 2029, all Class 3 flammable liquids will be carried in rail tank cars that meet or exceed DOT-117 specifications.