In a move to curb the danger posed by tank car trains that ply across the US-Canadian border, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has called for a revamp in the design of these vehicles, latest by April 2020.

The announcement has come in the wake of three recent derailments near the Bakken oil fields in the US. The first in this series of derailments happened on February 4 in Iowa, the second on February 16 in West Virginia and the third on March 5 in rural Illinois.

A similar derailment two years back resulted in an explosion, claiming the lives of 47 people. The explosion is attributable to flammable material being transported by these carriers. The thriving oil production in the Bakken oil fields has had the effect of scaling up the number of these trains to more than 400,000 from 9,500 seven years ago.

The declaration by DOT comprises of new standards pertaining to tank car construction, speed limits and braking system.

The construction requires new tank cars to be made leakage-proof and redrafting the existing ones to meet the specifications. With respect to the speed of the trains, an upper limit of 40 miles per hour has been fixed for trains with 70 or greater tank cars.

The brake system too has been overhauled to prevent pileups of tank cars at the time of derailment. The proposed changes also demand incorporation of 27 safety requirements, ranging from maintenance of rail tracks to gauging which route to be taken based on rail bed's curvature.

According to Christopher Hart, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board, the said announcement is "a significant step toward improving the safety of transporting crude oil and ethanol by rail.''

However, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), an industry association, is critical of the move. It considers the retrofit schedule as being unrealistic and one that would hamper the crude oil transportation across the country.