PUEBLO, Colo. — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed into law a rail bill including a requirement for wayside detectors and creating a new Office of Rail Safety to consider and enforce further regulations.
Polis signed the bill in a ceremony at the Pueblo Union Depot. Pueblo was chosen as the site as the governor sought to emphasize safety aspects of the bill near the location of an October 2023 derailment of a BNSF coal train that killed a truck driver on Interstate 25 [see “Preliminary NTSB findings indicate broken rail caused coal-train derailment …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 17, 2023].
House Bill 24-1030 had been passed Wednesday, on the last day of the legislative term.
The bill no longer includes its original 8,500-foot limit on train length [see “Colorado rail regulation bill advances,” News Wire, April 9, 2024]. A provision prohibiting the blocking of grade crossings for more than 10 minutes had been removed earlier.
The final version of the bill:
— Requires railroads to operate, maintain, and report the location of wayside detectors by July 1, 2026. It sets no requirement for minimum spacing of those detectors, noting FRA recommendations (40-mile intervals for hot bearing detectors; 25 miles for dragging equipment detectors) but deferring “to the expert advice of railroad operators.”
— Requires trains to be operated in “a manner … to minimize obstruction of emergency vehicles at highway-rail crossings.”
— Requires railroads to notify the state watch center of an emergency involving a train within 30 minutes; this includes incidents involving release of hazardous materials, death or injury, fire or risk of fire, or $50,000 or more in property damage.
— Requires railroads to offer hazardous-materials training to fire departments along their routes.
— Establishes a rail safety fund for fines collected by the state Public Utilities Commission, with money to be used for safety planning and development during construction, development and operation of a passenger rail system within the state.
— Creates an Office of Rail Safety to conduct inspections and investigations within the state, with a lengthy list of its responsibilities, as well as a community rail safety advisory commity and a rail industry safety advisory committee.
— Requires railroads to maintain insurance adequate to cover costs and liabilities resulting from accidents.
The state House passed the bill, including Senate amendments, by a 45-18 margin. It passed the Senate by a 23-13 margin.
— Updated May 11 at 8:30 a.m. CT to reflect bill being signed by governor.
Wow, more state employees at a new Office of Rail Safety. This is done at the federal level with FRA who are the experts.
Typical Democrat game plan — more regulation, more taxes ( I mean fees), and increase the size of state government.
Fines to go towards passenger rail. Says a lot. How about truck companies that run in and through Colorado paying for hazmat training for every fire department on the roads they run over?
The legal term is “Bill of Attainder”. Unconstitutional.
If the State wants it, they should be fully prepared to fund it by FULLY reimbursing the railroads affected for the added costs to comply.
Waste of time.
“We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately!”
HARUMPH! HARUMPH!