I was browsing around the web and came across the following forum with pictures from the aftermath of the EF2 (I think) tornado that hit texas recently: LINK The second to bottom picture of what appears to be 5 (or more) autoracks on the ground makes me wonder who pays for the damage? The RR’s insurance or the shipper’s? Also, on that other tornado thread there was reference to the January tornado that hit UP in Illinois. Does the RR pay for the cleanup?
If the autoracks were spotted at the origin or destination it might be the shipper, but most of the time it will be the railroad. While the Class 1s do carry insurance I think you will find that the deductible is large enough (could be $5 million or more) so they are “self-insured” for most incidents.
John
Fortunately in this case the Autoracks were stored empties, so no lading was damaged, only the cars.
Ok, so with a stored car does the “location” owner or the car owner pay for the damages?