Train carrying oil derails, explodes in Alabama

[unhappycamper]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/8/train-carrying-oilderailsexplodesinalabama.html



Smoke rises from derailed train cars in western Alabama on Nov. 8, 2013.

Train carrying oil derails, explodes in Alabama
November 8, 2013 9:26PM ET


A 90-car train carrying crude oil derailed in western Alabama on Friday, causing flames to burst hundreds of feet into the air.

The train was heading from the oil boomtowns of North Dakota to a Shell chemical plant near Mobile, Alabama. Unlike in recent oil train derailments, there were no reports of injuries or deaths. But the incident was another reminder of the dangers of North America’s increased reliance on a patchwork of railroads used to transport billions of gallons of newly discovered oil across the United States and Canada.

Concern had already been raised after a July accident in Lac-Megantic, Canada, in which 47 people were killed.

In Alabama on Friday, 20 of the train’s cars derailed, throwing flames 300 feet into the air. Those cars were being left to burn down, which could take up to 24 hours, according to the train owner, Genesee & Wyoming.

[Demeter]

1. This is insane

It does no good to destroy the earth digging up the oil, then blowing it up or losing it in train crashes.

Put the refinery on the drill site, ship the distillates by truck and stop being so stupidly cheap.

[polynomial]

2. We need a railroad leader that thinks like Ike

The sad thing about this accident has many unanswered questions. One is who might be the safety director of the G&W railroad? What type of maintenance plan did the railroad have? Is this like the other utilities that only replace infrastructure after something going wrong? Then try to do it with tax payer money.

Or, was the crew rested or possibly fatigued, many rail road systems have a schedule that looks good in reports but is total contrary of the biological processes recurring naturally on a twenty-four-hour cycle, the circadian rhythm . Some management teams will outright lie to prevent liability to the company when making reports from the recorder systems. Or faulty areas because of old methods implemented in what is called dark territory. The rail system alone would need a huge employment of man power to resolve and eliminate that old fashion dark territory operation. It should be done now and immediately.

The railroad is a very real good method of transportation for oil. The real consideration is the poor maintenance or reinvestment a railroad company makes in an annual basis. Many rail systems in America are not totally honest about that investment. Actually, one of the largest rail systems in America uses imported steel for rail replacement. That alone adds to the economic depression America is trying crawl out of.

The Congress and the Senate know this is happening. Imagine any other parts that could be American made to improve the economy but those parts are imported. That includes safety material. Vote for a change in the in the Surface Transportation Board, vote for new leadership in the Federal Rail Administration. For those who do not know fines and penalties to the rail road system are paid tens cents on the dollar the complicity too huge.

[sigmasix]

3. who pays for clean up?

Are republicans going to make American tax payers clean up the mess caused by the criminally wealthy? Again.

[Eugene]

4. Analysis: As Alabama flames fade, new oil-by-rail questions arise

Source: Reuters

Analysis: As Alabama flames fade, new oil-by-rail questions arise

(Reuters) - The second explosive oil-train derailment this year, which has finally burned out in rural Alabama, may raise new questions about the safety of the crude-by-rail boom, pointing to problems beyond those that surfaced following the earlier tragedy in Quebec.

Within hours of the accident early Friday morning, operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc had already ruled out many of the factors cited in the deadly Lac Megantic disaster, where a runaway train careened into the center of town, bursting into a fireball that killed 47 people and leveled buildings.

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With no apparent extenuating circumstances, experts said investigators would likely be looking hard at the condition of the tracks themselves, noting that short-line railroads like the one in Alabama have become critical final links in the thriving oil-by-rail trade -- but can suffer from neglect.

Just days before the accident, in fact, Genesee executives had talked to analysts about the challenges of upgrading the assets they inherited a year ago after buying RailAmerica, becoming the country's largest short-line railroad operator.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/11/us-oil-train-risks-analysis-idUSBRE9AA05P20131111