Moving hazardous chemicals by train is far safer than trucks, says top regulator who pushed merger and wants more freight moved by rail
Not even the toxic fireball over an Ohio derailment could shake Martin Oberman’s belief that railroads are a safer way to move hazardous chemicals, and most other freight, than long-haul trucks.
“Would you rather have your family and your SUV driving down the highway at 75 miles an hour next to a truck filled with chlorine, and the guy doing the driving who didn’t get enough sleep, or would you rather have that chlorine on a railroad?” asked Oberman, the nation’s most influential train regulator, during an interview with the Chicago Tribune last week.
“The answer is pretty obvious,” said Oberman, chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
On March 15, less than six weeks after the East Palestine, Ohio, calamity and amid increasing congressional scrutiny of rail safety, Oberman led the transportation board in approving the first big railroad merger in a quarter century, one that will have steep repercussions for Chicago-area communities. And he cited safety as one of his chief reasons for doing so.
Oberman, a former Chicago alderman and former chairman of Metra, the Chicago metropolitan rail system,
