Appeals Court Sides With CSXT

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit ruled last month that a ban on hazmat traffic within 2.2 miles of the Capitol cannot be imposed. In April, the court temporarily barred the city from enforcing the B.C. Act-which would require traffic rerouting-because it needed more time to study the legal issues. This latest ruling reverses a lower court’s decision, which CSX Transportation had appealed.

A three-judge panel agreed with the railroad that regulating hazardous rail shipments is a federal- rather than city-government issue, covered by the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act and the Federal Rail security Act. It also found that the law would “unreasonably burden interstate commerce.”

Rerouting, the court wrote in its ruling, “creates security risks because it will increase the length of time hazardous materials are in transport.”

Copyright Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation Jun 2005