Development of a Risk Assessment Tool for Rail Transport of Flammable Energy Resources

This research will develop a risk assessment model to evaluate the safety of rail transport flammable energy resources (petroleum crude oil, natural gases), accounting for infrastructure conditions, rolling stock characteristics, population densities along rail lines as well as tank car safety design features. The preliminary model implementation will be based on the information in New Jersey, which hosts a number of petrochemical facilities receiving a large volume of chemical materials annually.