# Association of American Railroads — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation **Citation:** 09-0125 **Type / status:** guidance / guidance **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** Not stated **Published:** 2009-05-20 09-0125 response to Association of American Railroads concerning 174.63. ## Document text <<>> U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration MAY 2 0 2009 1200 New Jersey Ave, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20590 Mr. Robert E. Fronczak Assistant Vice President Environment and Hazardous Materials Association of American Railroads 50 F Street NW Washington, DC 2000 1 - 1 564 Ref. No.: 09-0125 Dear Mr. Fronczak: This responds to your April 27,2009 email concerning the Association of American Railroad's AAR-600 program. You note that the Tank Car Committee of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has recommended discontinuance of the program and request that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 17 1-1 80) to delete current requirements that reference AAR 600. Currently, a bulk packaging, including a portable tank, transported in container-on-flatcar (COFC) or trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) service must conform to the conditions specified in 8 174.63 of the HMR. These regulations require approval by the Associate Administrator for Safety, Federal Railroad Administration, unless, among other things, the tank conforms to requirements in AAR-600 of the AAR Specifications for Tank Cars, "Specifications for Acceptability of Tank Containers." In accordance with AAR-600, approval and registration of compliant portable tanks is required, based on a determination that the tank meets all applicable standards and payment of a registration fee. As your email notes, since incorporation of the AAR-600 standard into the HMR, PHMSA has adopted standards for portable tanks that meet or exceed the AAR-600 requirements. Moreover, most of the portable tanks listed in the AAR-600 standard are prohibited from new construction, although they may remain in service provided that they continue to meet the applicable standard. For these reasons, we agree that the 5 174.63(c) reference to AAR- 600 is outdated and should instead specify that portable tanks transported in COFC or TOFC service must conform to all HMR requirements applicable to portable tanks. We intend to propose a revision to 5 174.63(c) as soon as practicable. In the interim, until a revision can be effected through rulemaking, DOT will continue to require packagings outlined in 5 174.63 to meet the requirements of AAR-600. However, DOT will take no exception to AAR removing the registration requirement through <<>> publication of a circular as it has no substantial impact on the safe transportation of these shipments. I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or need additional information. Sincerely, V Susan Gorsky Regulations Officer <<>> AAR 600 Program and Recommended Deletion of 49 CFR 5 174.63 (c) (2) Page 1 of 2 Gorsky, Susan cPHMSA> 4 12 4 -.b3 -Tad I -,,, ,, From: Fronczak, Robert [rfronczak@aar.org] Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 4:29 PM To: Gorsky, Susan Cc: Forister, Matthew; Rush, Mike; rfronczak8aar.org Subject: AAR 600 Program and Recommended Deletion of 49 CFR 5174.63 (c) (2) Dear Ms. Gorsky: As recently discussed over the phone, AAR's Tank Car Committee with the support of AAR's Haz Mat (BOE) Committee recently recommended the discontinuance of the AAR 600 program. The reasons for this recommendation are: 1. The AAR Tank Car Committee and AAR Hazardous Materials (BOE) Committee both agree that the current 49 CFR regulations exceed the AAR 600 requirements, 2. All of the specifications for original construction listed in the AAR 600 Standard were not allowed to be built after January 1, 2003 except DOT Specification 60 and international standard 1496-3 which are both already covered in 49 CFR. DOT Specification 60 can be found under 49 CFR 5178.255 and 1496-3 can be found under the specifications for LIN portable tanks 49 CFR 5178.274. Again the DOT standard meets or exceeds AAR 600. 3. After January 1,2010 the AAR 600 Standard will no longer be needed since all tanks will have to meet requirements meeting or exceeding AAR 600 requirements in accordance with 49 CFR 5171.14. AAR 600 does not cover UN portable tank requirements. AAR has not published a circular letter announcing the discontinuance of the AAR 600 program because there is still a requirement in the federal regulations which requires shippers to conform to the program (i.e. 49 CFR 5174.63 (c) (2). In the mean time, AAR continues to charge customers for registration of portable tanks according to AAR 600 standard, which we would like to stop as soon as practicable. AAR would like to discontinue the registration process immediately. As a result AAR recommends the immediate deletion of 49 CFR 5174.63 (c) (2) from the federal regulations and in the mean time a letter announcing DOT'S intention to do so. That would allow AAR to stop processing AAR 600 registrations and announce to the affected industry the discontinuance of the AAR 600 program. Sincerely, Robert E. Fronczak Supporting regulations references: Part 171 General Information, Regulations, and Definitions 49 CFR 9171.14 Transitional provisions for implementing certain requirements (d)(4) Until January 1,2010 a hazardous material may be transported in an IM, IMO, DOT specification 51 portable tank in accordance with the T Codes (Special Provisions) assigned to a hazardous material in Column (7) of the 5172.101 Table in effect on September 30,2001. Part 173 Shippers - General Requirements for Shipments and Packagings, Subpart B-Preparation Hazardous Materials for Transportation of <<>> AAR 600 Program and Recommended Deletion of 49 CFR 8174.63 (c) (2) Page 2 of 2 $173.32 Requirements for the use of portable tanks (c)(2) Grandfather provisions for portable tanks: A DOT Specification 51, IM 101, or IM102 portable tank may not be manufactured after January 1,2003; however, such tanks may continue to be used for the transportation of a hazardous material provided they meet the requirements of this subchapter, including the specification requirements and the requirements of this subchapter for the transportation of the particular hazard material according to the T codes in effect on September 30, 2001 or the new T codes in 172.1 02(c)(7)(i) (see 91 71 .I 4(d)(4) for transitional provisions applicable to T codes), and provided the portable tank conforms to the periodic inspection and tests specified for the particular portable tank in subpart G of part 180 of this subchapter. After January 1, 2003, all newly manufactured portable tanks must conform to the requirements for the design, construction and approval of UN portable tanks as specified in 95178.273, 178.274, 178.275, 178.276, 178.277 and part 180, subpart g, of this subchapter. $49 CFR $174.63 (c) (2) The tank and flatcar conform to requirements in AAR 600 of the AAR Specifications for Tank Cars, "Specifications for Acceptability of Tank Containers" (IBR, see 5171.7 of this subchapter); ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `phmsa` - SHA-256: `2e86c2a3b73cce374929c7cbc143e89f92e1533e5ee64936c8865618d63f1f0f` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T00:59:31.977Z - Exported: 2026-08-22T11:51:41.155Z - Document slug: `phmsa-interpretation-09-0125` ### Source metadata ```json { "materialSubtype": "interpretation", "interpretationArea": "hazardous_materials", "representation": "full_text_from_official_pdf", "companies": [ "Association of American Railroads" ], "individuals": [ "Mr. Robert E. Fronczak" ], "refIds": [ "09-0125" ], "catalogDates": [ "2009-05-20" ], "catalogParts": [ 174 ], "catalogRowCount": 1, "sourceRecordUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/node/52001" ], "linkedAttachmentUrls": [], "unavailableResponseUrls": [], "duplicateRepresentationUrls": [], "citedSections": [ "174.63", "173.32", "172.1", "178.274", "178.275", "178.276", "178.277" ], "catalogPageUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/17463" ], "pdfUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2009/090125.pdf" ], "representations": [ { "viewUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2009/090125.pdf", "detailUrl": null, "detailHtmlPath": null, "pdfUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2009/090125.pdf", "pdfArtifactPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/09-0125-e83829665a.pdf", "pdfArtifactSha256": "74281359a0e24dce7b715a6a95fa0ff857e303afb0d72e88c43fda5e34ce48d0", "extractedTextPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/09-0125-e83829665a.v2.txt", "extractedTextSha256": "d03af6d22c9247ecc195ae5c91e8e907dc39ed7909974364c60b7ba85bfd36c4", "pageCount": 4, "extractionVersion": 2 } ], "caveat": "Interpretations apply regulations to the facts presented and do not create independently enforceable requirements.", "jurisdiction": "US" } ```