Non-Accident Releases (NARs)

November 23, 2021

Attention All Hazardous Material Shippers,

In the spirit of partnership and collaboration, we wanted to point out an environmental and safety issue that has been on the increase in recent months and ask for your help. KCS has witnessed a concerning increase in Non-Accident Releases (NARs) and loose closures on hazmat tank cars. A NAR is the unintentional release of lading while in railroad transportation possession, not caused by a derailment, collision or other rail-related accident. NARs are avoidable if proper protocol is followed.

NARs can cause personal injury, environmental damage, disrupt rail yards, impact adjacent facilities and communities, and impact train operations for hundreds of miles in both directions. The safety and well-being of our employees, customer shipments and the communities we serve will always be our number one priority.

Shipping safely requires attention to detail throughout the process from loading to unloading. Should a car or intermodal shipment in transit be found to be leaking or at risk of leaking due to an improperly secured closure, here is what you can expect:

• KCS will rapidly mobilize an incident response team to secure the rail equipment and remediate the release.
• Your company’s point of contact will be notified of the incident by KCS.
• KCS will recover costs associated with the incident by sending an invoice for the charges, per published rates to the shipper of record or the offeror of the shipment.
• Extensive remediation or other associated expenses beyond the initial incident response will be invoiced at cost.

As a reminder, the fees associated with NAR events can be found in the following tariff documents: KCS Tariff 8100, Item 860, KCSM Accessorial Service Rules, and KCSM Accessorial Service Catalog – Current Tariffs. These can be found on our website on our Accessorial Services page.

We have included some examples below for reference: 

We thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and your partnership.

Additional information and resources on NARs can be found on the following websites:

https://www.aar.org/nar
https://www.hazmatregs.com/products/books
https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AAR-CPC-1122-BOE.pdf
https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AAR-CPC-1245-Pamphlet-34-BOE.pdf