THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The railroads shipping crude oil on the tracks through your town believe that the shipping information is private and confidential. Others, including many people like fire fighters believe that they should know so they can be prepared. On Thursday the Texas Attorney General agreed with the public.

In a four-page letter dated Thursday, the attorney general’s office dismissed those arguments and said the state “must release the submitted information.”

A spokeswoman for Kansas City Southern Railway, which had sought to block the release of the information, could not immediately be reached for comment.

McClatchy requested information about crude oil trains from more than 20 states, including Texas, last year in an effort to track the potential dangers from oil shipments, which have skyrocketed from fewer than 10,000 trains in 2008 to more than 500,000 last year as U.S. production of crude oil from fracking boomed.

Railroads initially asked state officials to keep the information confidential and limit its disclosure to local emergency responders, but most of the states ultimately agreed to make the documents public. One notable exception is West Virginia, where a crude oil train derailed and exploded on Monday.

In October, the Federal Railroad Administration issued guidance that the reports, which show the estimated number of trains per week and their routes, was not sensitive to either commercial interests or security. In its letter, the Texas Attorney General’s office agreed that the companies had offered no evidence to support their claims that releasing the information would hurt their business.

“Under review,” Texas assistant attorney general Cristian Rosas-Grillet wrote, “we find (Kansas City Southern) has failed to demonstrate the release of any of its information would result in substantial harm to its competitive position.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation began requiring railroads to report large shipments of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to other states last May, following the derailment of a CSX train in Lynchburg, Va., that resulted in a spill, fire and evacuation. The derailment this week near Mount Carbon, W.Va., also on a CSX rail line, resulted in a fire that burned for four days and kept more than 100 residents out of their homes. All but a few were allowed to return Friday.

Now you too can know when you hear that train whistle blow, grab your bag and get ready to go.