Railroads emerge as alternative to Keystone XL pipeline for moving oil sands from Canada

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Railroads emerge as alternative to Keystone XL pipeline for moving oil sands from Canada

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, Mar 03, 2013 01:26 AM EST

The Washington Post Even if foes of the Keystone XL pipeline block it, companies seeking to get Canada’s oil sands to U.S. and world markets could travel the old-fashioned way: by rail.

While TransCanada has been trying to obtain a U.S. permit to build the 875-mile northern leg of its Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian and U.S. railroad companies have been busy installing new track and loading facilities to carry the oil sands crude from northern Alberta to refineries in the United States and Canada.
....

The State Department report on the Keystone XL proposal said there are 48,000 rail cars on backorder in North America.

This is a great time to load up on shares of BNSF. Oh, wait.... Someone named Warren Buffett bought all of them a few years ago. Maybe that's why he's worth $53.5 billion. He's no longer in the top three, though:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/03/04/billionaires_club_spains_amancio_ortega_knocks_warren_buffett_out_of_the_top_3.html

[Robb]

1. People forget the big truck builders used to build railroad cars.

They smelled which way the wind was blowing and shifted gears, so to speak. Giant fortunes were built.

I doubt they missed this one.

[jschurchin]

2. We are seeing a large increase in traffic.

I work for the railroad and we are currently seeing 14-80 car trains a week, however the projections are for 28 trains a week to be passing through our yard by the summer.
This is very good news for our industry as our coal traffic has dropped by 16-20%. We are grateful for the business and the work that the Dakota Fields have brought to not only my industry but to all the others effected by the oil production.
Thanks for the OP mahatmakanejeeves

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. "Thanks for the OP mahatmakanejeeves"

My pleasure. You're quite welcome.

Can you be more specific regarding your location or carrier? If you'd rather not say, that's okay.

I suspect that with the decreasing reliance of power generation on coal, the RRs aren't making as much money hauling steam coal as they used to. I find it hard to imagine that anything could generate as much traffic on the old N&W and C&O (OK - Norfolk Southern and CSX) as mineral freight, but I think the railroads will take all the oil trains they can get.

[jschurchin]

4. I work in Conway Pa.

For Norfolk Southern. The unit trains are originating with the BNSF and being interchanged in Chicago, Being they are carrying a combustible commodity, they stop in Conway for a through 1000 mile inspection along with a new A-6 air brake test. I'm not exactly sure who is requesting the new A-6, being the train is a unit and the test is only required at origination. However we will take the extra work, being like I said earlier, our coal freight is down significantly.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Anything unusual about the brakes on that equipment?

Or just normal air brakes? Is any NS locomotive allowed on the front, or are only certain units assigned to those trains?

A quick Google search brings up the BNSF air brake and train handling rules. The FRA MP&E compliance manual is online as well. I'll look at those at lunch, if I have the time.

My guess is that the train is headed for refineries in Marcus Hook, PA, or somewhere in NJ. It would be a real shame if that train ran away coming down into Altoona.

Gotta love those Interwebz. Everything is there.

Keep up the good work.

[jschurchin]

6. Normal air brakes.

Although we are running remotes on both ends which is unusual. From our understanding this will allow the train to turn around quicker being they don't have to swap power from end to end after being loaded, and with a quick switch flip allows the leader to be either end.

As far as braking power, I'm sure they would love to run ECP (Electrically Controlled Pneumatic) braking system. Although it's a very impressive braking system, it has it's issues. I have seen it in action, it is Incredible. However with 80+ electrical connections, if any of them fail the system doesn't work. This would cause delays and at this point delays are something we can not afford.

The trains coming through Conway are actually headed to the Delaware City refinery, here is a link about the expansion going on there to handle the increase in rail traffic.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local//delaware-feature/50475-delaware-city-refinery-expands-rail-capacity

Hope this info helps. Peace my friend, John

[FogerRox]

9. SD80MAC's?

[jschurchin]

11. Actually Dash9's or SD70's wide bodies

With remote rear units. We interchange with bnsf in Chicago. Now they may run SD80MACS from the fields in North Dakota to Chicago, that i do not know.

[FogerRox]

12. Thanks. I just looked up this NS photo list for locos

Found some antiques
NS 4270-4271 EMD F9A RPCX 2007-Present
NS 4275-4276 EMD F7B RPCX 2007-Present

This is a beauty



Some classics
NS 2100-2110 EMD SW1001 CR 1999-Present


http://www.nslocos.com/main.html

[jschurchin]

13. I've been inside the cab of that unit.

Its loud, dirty, and unbelievably hot. It may look nice, but you couldn't pay me to ride inside of it.

[Fuddnik]

14. They paid me for 31 years to ride inside one. Drive it actually.

[jschurchin]

15. They are still paying me

To inspect cars, that is. Did a couple of tours in the engine house. Now im back in the car shop.
I have the utmost respect for t/s guys. I think i would go goofy sitting in that cab for 12 hours. Then again, at 51, maybe sitting in a cab wouldn't be so bad. Compared to walking 3 miles on ballast, that is.

[Fuddnik]

16. Railroad Retirement is sweet.

The constant vibration on the locomotive will ruin your back. But, I got out at 49, and have been collecting for 12 years.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Adding a link to another article

U.S. Refiners Turn to Rail to Tap Canadian Oil

BUSINESS March 11, 2013, 4:46 p.m. ET

By BEN LEFEBVRE
Pipeline or not, lots of Canadian crude oil is headed to the U.S.

As the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline drags on, U.S. refining companies are turning to railroads to bring crude from Canada's oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Shipments are set to double this year, to more than 200,000 barrels a day, according to one estimate, as Valero Energy Corp., Phillips 66 and other U.S. fuel companies make an end run around the much-delayed pipeline.

[Fuddnik]

8. We're fighting the wrong fight here.

We need to ban that shit from the US altogether.

[FogerRox]

10. Northern Gateway pipeline is DOA, KXL may be DOA, the pressure is on

rail car shipment is not a long term hi volume solution, they know it, we know it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. Some of those trains are headed west, too.

Last edited Fri Nov 1, 2013, 04:17 PM - Edit history (2)

This is from the Longview, Washington, Daily News.

Oil superhighway? Trains full of fracked N. Dakota oil are heading our way

June 22, 2013 11:30 pm • By Erik Olson / The Daily News

Each week, more and more mile-and-a-half long tanker trains filled with oil travel into the Pacific Northwest.

The sweet crude — sucked from deep under North Dakota — brings opportunity for business and jobs in the Lower Columbia region and stirs fears the river will become a fossil fuel highway.
....

Last year, oil cars began leaving the Bakken shale region centered around Williston, N.D., en route 1,200 miles to Columbia County to be unloaded at Port Westward near Clatskanie — just one of a handful of destinations in the Northwest.

Earlier this year, Tesoro proposed to build a $100 million terminal at the Port of Vancouver that would create 80 jobs. And similar proposals are being considered in Tacoma and Grays Harbor County. The oil would be loaded onto barges and sent to West Coast refineries.

This mile-long oil train rumbled through downtown Rainier {Oregon, across the river from Longview, WA} last February. Roger Werth / The Daily News

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. Deadly Train Derailment Fuels Crude-by-Rail Concerns

Deadly Train Derailment Fuels Crude-by-Rail Concerns
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324867904578591932401897430.html

CANADA NEWS Updated July 7, 2013, 9:18 p.m. ET
Explosion of Runaway Train in Quebec Threatens to Ratchet Up Scrutiny of Shipments Amid Increased Oil Production.

By CHESTER DAWSON and TOM FOWLER

The deadly weekend explosion of a runaway crude-carrying train in Quebec threatens to ratchet up scrutiny of rising crude-by-rail shipments on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, amid a boom in North American oil production.

In both countries, shipments of crude by rail have shot up sharply, as producers race to get all their new oil to market and as pipeline companies scramble to build new lines or reconfigure old ones to handle the growing volumes.
....

In the U.S., shipments of crude by rail have gone from 9,500 carloads in 2008, the year widely seen as the beginning of the current oil boom, to 233,811 carloads in 2012, according to the Association of American Railroads. A carload is typically about 740 barrels.

About 16.6 million barrels of Canadian crude were shipped by rail to the U.S. in 2012, accounting for about 2% of Canadian crude exports, according to data from Canada's National Energy Board. But industry estimates say that could grow to as much as 73 million barrels in 2013 and nearly 110 million barrels by 2014.

—Caroline Van Hasselt, Ángel González and Benjamin Lefebvre contributed to this article.

Write to Chester Dawson at [e-mail] and Tom Fowler at [e-mail]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. Trains, not pipelines, channel new U.S. oil boom

Last edited Thu Aug 15, 2013, 08:22 AM - Edit history (1)

Trains, not pipelines, channel new U.S. oil boom
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/31/198183/trains-not-pipelines-channel-new.html

By Curtis Tate | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Delaware City, Del -- Who needs a pipeline when you have a railroad? ... While Republicans in Congress accuse President Barack Obama of killing American jobs by delaying a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the Delaware City refinery, 100 miles northeast of Washington, never needed. it.

No pipeline runs from the booming Bakken oil-producing region of North Dakota to Delaware City. No pipeline stretches to the Tesoro refinery at Anacortes, Wash.

Rather, existing oil pipelines generally run north-south, not east-west. But railroads lead to Delaware City and Anacortes, and practically everywhere else ini the country.

Until last month's deadly derailment of a crude-oil train in Quebec, pipelines dominated the debate about moving oil. But rail shipments of North American crude oil already have matched what Keystone XK was proposed to carry, and more is on the way. What started as a stopgap has become the go-to for transporting crude.

Also:

Trains, not pipelines, channel new U.S. oil boom
http://www.sunherald.com/2013/07/31/4839765/trains-not-pipelines-channel-new.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. Pipelines a hard sell in Quebec’s post-Lac Mégantic world

Hat tip to Trainorders

Pipelines a tough sell in a post Lac-Megantic world
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,3165361

Pipelines a hard sell in Quebec’s post-Lac Mégantic world
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/24/pipelines-a-hard-sell-in-quebecs-post-lac-megantic-world/

Nicolas Van Praet | 13/08/24 | Last Updated: 13/08/24 2:25 PM ET

MONTREAL • When Alberta Premier Alison Redford touted TransCanada Corp.’s proposed west-to-east pipeline project this month as “nation-building,” Pauline Marois probably cringed.

Quebec’s Parti Québécois Premier has no interest in building anything resembling a stronger Canada. Her entire political raison-d’être is to take the French-speaking province out of the country and forge its own independence.

But as the leader of one of the most unpopular provincial governments in Canadian history, Ms. Marois also happens to be supremely pragmatic. She knows that without access to oil that’s cheaper than the current internationally sourced Brent crude, the business case diminishes for Quebec’s two remaining refineries. She also knows that the province needs those refining plants if it ever wants to execute hopes of producing its own oil to satisfy domestic demand and become truly energy self-sufficient (the province has an estimated 50 billion barrels of oil on its territory, most of it under Anticosti island).
....

The premier hasn’t yet publicly articulated answers to those questions. And unlike her provincial counterparts, she hasn’t endorsed either TransCanada’s Energy East plan or a separate proposal by Enbridge Inc. to ship oil east, preferring so far to stay silent. But the fact her staff is even engaged in the process, while saying nearly nothing about how to reduce the province’s reliance on oil itself, is evidence her government is knee-deep in pipeline due diligence. The question now is whether Quebecers themselves can be sold on more Western oil in a post-Lac Mégantic world — one in which possibly chemically-laced crude from the fields of North Dakota killed 47 of their own in North America’s worst rail disaster since 1918.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. ‘Keystone oil will travel through America not to America’: Billionaire steps up anti-Keystone campai

Hat tip, Trainorders:

Crude by rail gains steam, is Keystone obsolete?
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3179330

‘Keystone oil will travel through America not to America’: Billionaire steps up anti-Keystone campaign with US$1M ad blitz
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/09/keystone-oil-will-travel-through-america-not-to-america-billionaire-steps-up-anti-keystone-campaign-with-us1m-ad-push/

Mark Drajem, Bloomberg News | 13/09/09 | Last Updated: 13/09/09 9:17 AM ET

Billionaire investor Tom Steyer said he is backing a four-part, US$1 million advertising campaign aimed at convincing viewers the Keystone XL pipeline will hurt the economy and communities and should be blocked.
....

Steyer, an Obama donor, said his efforts are aimed at giving the president the political space to reject the pipeline. As the Keystone review faces possible further delay, the prospects for approval dim, according to Steyer.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

22. Looking for a Way Around Keystone XL, Canadian Oil Hits the Rails

Looking for a Way Around Keystone XL, Canadian Oil Hits the Rails
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/business/energy-environment/looking-for-a-way-around-keystone-xl-canadian-oil-hits-the-rails.html

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: October 30, 2013

HOUSTON — Over the past two years, environmentalists have chained themselves to the White House fence and otherwise coalesced around stopping the Keystone XL pipeline as their top priority in the fight against global warming.

But even if President Obama rejects the pipeline, it might not matter much. Oil companies are already building rail terminals to deliver oil from western Canada to the United States, and even to Asia.

Since July, plans have been announced for three large loading terminals in western Canada with the combined capacity of 350,000 barrels a day — equivalent to roughly 40 percent of the capacity of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is designed to bring oil from western Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast.

Over all, Canada is poised to quadruple its rail-loading capacity over the next few years to as much as 900,000 barrels a day, up from 180,000 today.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. Heavy freight traffic hampers some Amtrak trains

Last edited Thu Dec 12, 2013, 04:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Heavy freight traffic hampers some Amtrak trains
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/ND_AMTRAK_DELAYS_MTOL-

Dec 12, 9:58 AM EST

FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- Heavy freight traffic is hampering Amtrak passenger trains between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest.

Spokesman Marc Magliari says Amtrak is canceling or altering many of the Empire Builder trips between Chicago and Portland, Ore., through Sunday as a result of the congestion on the tracks that Amtrak shares with BNSF Railway.

He says hundreds of travelers are affected. Amtrak is offering to rebook trips.

Much of the congestion is due to heavy freight train traffic in the western North Dakota oil fields. BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth says the recent cold snap also has been a factor because it has slowed everything down.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. Commuters, too.

Hat tip, Trainorders.

It's not just Amtrak's Empire Builder
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3266898

Freight traffic forces delays for Northstar commuter rail
http://www.startribune.com/local/north/236545601.html

Article by: PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune
Updated: December 19, 2013 - 8:10 PM

Two Northstar trains ran into lengthy delays Thursday because of heavy freight traffic.

The first morning commuter trip from Big Lake into downtown Minneapolis was delayed by more than 30 minutes. And in the evening, the 5:27 p.m. train leaving downtown hit a 30-minute delay near Fridley, said John Siqveland, Metro Transit spokesman.

The delays were caused by freight backups on lines other than the one Northstar uses, said BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth. “When something happens on another route, it impacts our entire network,” said McBeth, adding that freight trains also were delayed.

Northstar — with stops in Elk River, Ramsey, Anoka, Coon Rapids and Fridley — had three of its five morning trips delayed on Dec. 5 for the same reason.