This buffer car on oil trains would appear to be kind of like the escape hatch in the Sherman tank..... It was to reassure crews that they still had some sort of chance..... no matter how small.

There is little "science" that I've seen to show this will do much about anything (hot engines, protecting crews, or any other assorted excuse). It appears to be the kind of "policy" that folks resort to, so they can say they've done "something".......when, in the face of the actual sources of risk, such action may be of negligible effectiveness.

Degassing is going to be required for fracking oils to a lower volatility, and more crash resilient cars are already coming, and these trains are going to require a lot more investment in 3rd and 4th mainlines, on severe grades, and more controlled siding, due to almost certain coming speed restrictions on these trains. These are "big ticket" items and thus the "search" for the "easy" alternative...... There don't appear to be many of those, and so now it is time to "bite the bullet", and implement these changes.

What people aren't going to put up with is towns next to rail limes being randomly blown to smithereens, or major oil derailments every other day. Most of the railroads finally get that, hence the new BNSF rules, and ensuing oil company lawsuits. But, it would appear that the oil companies still don't seem to get it.