Commitments and Contingencies (Notes)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES:

From time to time, the Company is a defendant in certain lawsuits resulting from the Company's operations in the ordinary course as the nature of the Company's business exposes it to the potential for various claims and litigation related to property damage, personal injury, freight loss, labor and employment, environmental, contractual disputes and other matters. As described in Note 2, Significant Accounting Policies, the Company maintains insurance policies to mitigate the financial risk associated with many of these claims.

Any material changes to current litigation trends or a catastrophic rail accident or series of accidents involving material freight loss or property damage, personal injury and environmental liability, disputes involving our railroads or other claims against the Company that are not covered by insurance could have a material adverse effect on the Company's results of operations, financial condition and liquidity. For instance, the Company received a notice in November 2014 from the EPA requesting information under the Clean Water Act related to the discharge of crude oil as a result of a derailment of one of our trains in November 2013 in the vicinity of Aliceville, Alabama, but a fine associated with the contamination has not yet been assessed and is not estimable.

Management believes there are adequate provisions in the financial statements for any probable liabilities that may result from disposition of the pending lawsuits. Based upon currently available information, the Company does not believe it is reasonably possible that any such lawsuit or related lawsuits would be material to the Company's results of operations or have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial position or liquidity.