The Alaska Railroad is striving to become the first railway system to transport LNG; however, finds itself affected by a lawsuit from an environment group.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on Monday suing the Federal Railroad Administration for failing to disclose the approval process for the Alaska Railroad’s application for rail shipments of highly volatile liquefied natural gas. The Alaska Railroad is not named in the suit.
Miyoko Sakashita, a senior attorney for the organization, stated in a news release that the federal agency has largely ignored a February public records request seeking records or information about the hazards of carrying LNG.
The Railroad Administration in October 2015 issued a two-year permit authorizing three round-trip trains between Anchorage and Fairbanks per week. The Alaska Railroad in September sent 40-foot LNG containers between the two cities as a demonstration.
