Cities Grapple With Oil-Train Safety

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Mon Jan 27, 2014, 03:17 PM - Edit history (3)

Yet another hat tip to Trainorders, and especially member Lackawanna484

The theme of this article is how cities that are now experiencing an increase in rail traffic are preparing to respond to incidents.

Eastern Railroad Discussion > Cities grapple with oil train safety
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,3292912

Cities Grapple With Oil-Train Safety
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579320971969135440

Recent Derailments Raise Concerns Over North Dakota Crude Traveling by Rail Through Cities

By Russell Gold and Lynn Cook Jan. 14, 2014 11:02 p.m. ET

....
Railroad officials don't like to talk about it, but oil trains are rumbling through many large cities because of surging output from North Dakota's Bakken shale. Functioning as pipelines on rails, tanker cars full of oil pass through Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, St. Louis, Kansas City and Houston, among others.

Bakken crude, which has been involved in three major explosions after rail accidents in the past seven months, is traveling to every corner of the country: west into Washington state and then south to refineries near Los Angeles; south to Gulf Coast refiners; north into Canada; and east to refineries in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Railroads and oil shippers wouldn't detail oil-train movements through their networks, citing security concerns. The Wall Street Journal identified routes through investor presentations and industry marketing material, as well as interviews with industry officials and experts.
....



Concerns about emergency responders helped prompt the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, to warn that Bakken oil appeared to be more volatile than other crudes, which can burn but seldom have exploded. Dominique Dostie, a firefighter who fought the Lac-Mégantic blaze, said it took 30 hours of applying special foam to extinguish it.
....

—Chester Dawson, Ben Kesling and Betsy Morris contributed to this article.

Write to Russell Gold at [e-mail] and Lynn Cook at [e-mail]

It's listed under "Europe News." I'm sure they'll figure out where North Dakota is soon enough. As "Lackawanna484" says, the story has been picked up by other outlets. If you link to it from Google News, you should be able to read it without a subscription.

[elleng]

1. Thanks. Interesting AND

VERY troublesome.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. NTSB Calls for Stronger Controls on Oil Shipments by Rail

Old news. Adding a link.

NTSB Calls for Stronger Controls on Oil Shipments by Rail