Tank cars stored next to FLL pose safety concerns, is it a disaster waiting to happen?
BRIEF CONTEXT ON FLL AND THE STORED TANK CARS:
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) is the one of the most important airports in the state of Florida. It serves as a secondary airport to bigger Miami International Airport (MIA) to the south. The airport is located in Dania Beach, FL bordered to the north by I-595, I-95 to the west, Griffin Road (FL-818) to the south and Federal Highway (US-1, FL-5 and FL-A1A) to the east. Running along the latter highway is the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) mainline. These tracks were built by Henry Flager between the late 19th and early 20th century to promote tourism to the area. The tracks run only 219ft from the relocated threshold for runway 28R and along those tracks are tank cars with the 1987 label on them which means it could contain Flammable Liquids. The outcome of a collision with any moving object and a tank car can be very catastrophic and with the somewhat common occurrence of runway excursions, this has definitely brought up some red flags.
Satellite view of FLL, location of stored tank cars labeled in red, runway 10L/28R in green and “danger zone” in circled in blue
HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN THERE?
Using google maps street view, I saw that the tank cars first started to appear along the tracks around May 2015 so they’ve only been there for 10 years. Storage on extra/unused tracks isn’t rare, CSX stored rail cars on the now abandoned Homestead Subdivision pre 2016 they were removed after complaints of people acting up, playing around on the stored rail cars. It wasn’t until January 2021 that the amount of tank cars stored grew and now as of May 30th, 2025 they cover around 3,567ft of the track completely across RWYs 10L/28R.
Comparison between May 2015 (bottom) and January 2021 (top)
THE POTENTIAL RISKS:
The most common risk the stored cars propose is that if an aircraft overruns RWY 10L, it will crash into the tank cars and depending on its speed and what is stored in the cars it can easily be catastrophic and deadly for not only the people in the plane and anybody on the adjacent Perimeter Road, but it could also cause the extra tank cars to ignite and potentially create an even worse situation.
Another risk I can think of is that if the airport is operating in reverse (RWYs 28L and R) an approaching aircraft could be too low and maybe hit the tank cars creating another catastrophic situation but the most common fear is the first one.
WHY WE SHOULDN’T BE THAT WORRIED/WHAT THE MEDIA WON’T TELL YOU:
At the end of RWY 10L there is an Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) this is essentially a bed of crushable concrete made to slow down aircraft faster than any type of braking which can help reduce the chances of runway excursions. This system is in place in many tight airports around the world like New York LaGuardia (LGA) SĂŁo Paulo Congonhas (CGH) and Chicago Midway (MDW) to name a few.
Another thing that honestly seems like common sense to me is that tank cars that are stored and unused generally won’t have anything inside and if a plane hits an empty tank car there are still some safety risks although not as big as if they actually contained flammable liquids.
If they were also a big safety risk, there’s a good chance that the Broward County Aviation Department or the state of Florida would’ve mandated that the FEC move the tank cars immediately to remove any changes of a catastrophe occurring.
CONCLUSION:
While having stored tank cars next to a busy airport doesn’t seem like the brightest idea, based on the fact that the cars have been stored there for years with no accidents or any mandate move them, the increased safety measures taken by the airport to avoid a runway excursion and the general fact that a stored rail car wouldn’t be carrying anything, we shouldn’t be that worried about anything bad happening at least for now. This is just my insight about the situation and if you think differently, that’s totally fine!
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