(The Associated Press circulated the following article on February 13.)
BALTIMORE, Md. — CSX Transportation has agreed to pay Baltimore $2 million to settle costs associated with cleaning up after a 2001 train derailment and tunnel fire.
The payment, announced Monday, settles an ongoing dispute between city officials and the freight rail company over who should bear the costs after a CSX freight train with tankers carrying flammable and hazardous chemicals partially derailed in the Howard Street Tunnel creating an inferno that paralyzed downtown for days.
Baltimore sued the rail company to recover the costs of cleaning up the accident estimated to be as high as $12 million. The city claimed in its suit that Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX failed to properly maintain its tracks. CSX countered that the derailment actually was caused when a city watermain in the tunnel broke.
An investigation by the National Transportation and Safety Board failed to determine a cause.
The settlement also provides for increased communication between the city and the rail company about hazardous and non-hazardous railshipments, including shared access to police radio frequencies and real-time surveillance images from tunnel security cameras, city officials said in a statement.