Industry Is Hit on Oil-Train Secrecy

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The New York Times ran a similar article six weeks ago: Despite Rise in Spills, Hazardous Cargo Rides Rails in Secret.

And The Wall Street Journal. itself ran a story like this back in January: Cities Grapple With Oil-Train Safety.

Be that as it may, here is last week's article:

Industry Is Hit on Oil-Train Secrecy

Secrecy of Oil-by-Train Shipments Causes Concern Across the U.S. - WSJ.com

Business

Emergency Responders Lack Knowledge of Shipments Despite Accidents; A Step Toward Disclosure

By Russell Gold And Betsy Morris
Updated May 23, 2014 12:45 a.m. ET

Emergency responders in Cincinnati know that trains full of crude oil have been rumbling through their city; they can see mile-long chains of black tank cars clacking across bridges over the Ohio River. ... But they don't know enough to feel prepared for the kinds of fiery accidents that have occurred over the last 10 months after oil-train derailments. How many of the 100 trains that pass through residential neighborhoods and warehouse districts daily are carrying oil, for example? And when crude is carried, is it the kind that federal investigators have linked to explosions?

"We have no idea when trains are moving through and when they aren't," said Thomas Lakamp, special operations chief for the Cincinnati Fire Department. "The railroads aren't required to report to us."

A first step toward limited disclosure takes effect next month. ... But secrecy still cloaks the rapidly expanding business of shipping crude by rail, leaving local officials from Portland, Ore., to Toronto struggling to obtain details about oil shipments. Driven by long-standing railroad-industry fears about stirring local protests or terrorist attacks, there is no central repository for information on oil trains or other hazardous materials. Nor are there easy-to-find maps of train routes from the oil fields of North Dakota and Texas to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico and the East and West coasts.

An emergency order from the U.S. Transportation Department in June will require railroads to alert states about oil trains originating in North Dakota. But the rules, which follow accidents involving oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale in such unlikely locations as Lynchburg, Va., and Aliceville, Ala., already are coming under criticism. ... The dearth of information partly reflects the surging popularity of oil trains, in which roughly 100 crude-laden tankers are strung together. In 2008, it would take four days for railroads to move 100 tank cars of oil. Today, oil trains of that size depart every two hours, according to industry and government statistics. The Energy Department estimates that 1 million barrels of oil a day ride the rails across the U.S., more crude than Qatar exports daily.
....

—Lynn Cook contributed to this article.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. In rail towns, some try to stop oil trains

From Reuters and the Dickinson, ND, Press: In rail towns, some try to stop oil trains

By Reuters Media Today at 12:21 a.m.

Albany, N.Y., Sheriff Craig Apple assured a room of concerned citizens that county emergency crews were prepared to handle an oil-train accident involving three or four tank cars.

Firefighters have been training to combat railcar fires with foam, and evacuation plans are detailed in a 500-page emergency response plan, Apple told residents in a May 12 address.

But he was blunt about the potential impact of a larger derailment: “Look, let’s face it, there’s going to be mayhem.”

Albany’s tracks handle as much as a fourth of the oil pumped from North Dakota’s booming Bakken Oil Patch, or up to several 100-car trains per day, each carrying 70,000 barrels. ... It is one of several spots along North America’s new oil-by-rail corridors where residents and officials are restless, following six fiery derailments in the past 10 months. Some want to limit or halt the traffic, fearful that existing precautions will not prevent deadly blasts, air and waterway pollution, or nuisances including nasty odors.

[Fuddnik]

2. In a hundred car train, moving at normal speed, you can expect at least a 25 car derailment.

And probably more.