Train Deaths Rise Amid Energy-Driven Rail Transformation

Train Deaths Rise Amid Energy-Driven Rail Transformation 

Fatalities reach seven-year high as railroads embark on a record expansion 

By Marianne Lavelle and Daily Climate | March 16, 2015  Scientific American
This article is from the In-Depth Report Train Tragedies and Transformations

Every week in the United States in 2014, about 16 people were killed by trains—a 17 percent increase over the previous year and adding up to the highest number of rail casualties since 2007, federal government data shows.  

None of these victims died in fiery crude oil explosions like the ones visible for miles around train derailment sites this month in Illinois and Ontario. But in some regions, there are signs that the increasing deaths may be tied to a massive energy-driven transformation underway on U.S. railroads. (See sidebar, "Five ways energy is driving new railroad traffic.")

As the tracks become major conduits for oil, petroleum products, and—not as widely noticed—materials like industrial sand, pipe, and chemicals for the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells, some states are grappling with changed train routes, speeds and traffic patterns that spell new hazards for pedestrians and motorists.

Ready for expansion?
Adding to risk are surging U.S. passenger railroads, which typically operate on the same tracks as freight. The number of people struck and killed by passenger trains last year, about 255, was the highest toll of non-passenger fatalities for those railroads in 40 years of record-keeping by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

The increase in fatalities raises questions whether the nation is prepared for the massive rail expansion already underway. Railroads plan record capital spending of $29 billion this year. They'll lay new track, double existing track, buy locomotives and build terminals.

But the one job that won't get done is installation of a new high-tech integrated command and control safety system, Positive Train Control (PTC), even though Congress seven years ago mandated its deployment by the end of 2015. A bipartisan bill already has been introduced to extend the safety system deadline five more years. (See sidebar.)

The most populous states had the greatest number of train fatalities. California, with 141 deaths, and Texas, with 65, together accounted for 25 percent of the total. California was one of the few places that the majority of fatalities were due to passenger trains. Across the country, 70 percent of those who died on railroads in 2014, some 575 people, were killed by freight trains.

Freight rail traffic increased 4.5 percent last year, a substantial bump after two prior years of declining carloads. That drop-off was due mainly to falling demand for rail's longtime mainstay commodity—coal. But freight rebounded due to strong shipping of consumer goods and its single fastest-growing commodity, crude oil, up 20.1 percent over 2013 to 493,126 carloads in 2014, the Association of American Railroads reported.....   more here

Train Deaths Rise Amid Energy-Driven Rail Transformation

Fatalities reach seven-year high as railroads embark on a record expansion

March 16, 2015 |By Marianne Lavelle     Scientific American

Every week in the United States in 2014, about 16 people were killed by trains—a 17 percent increase over the previous year and adding up to the highest number of rail casualties since 2007, federal government data shows.  

None of these victims died in fiery crude oil explosions like the ones visible for miles around train derailment sites this month in Illinois and Ontario. But in some regions, there are signs that the increasing deaths may be tied to a massive energy-driven transformation underway on U.S. railroads. (See sidebar, "Five ways energy is driving new railroad traffic.")

As the tracks become major conduits for oil, petroleum products, and—not as widely noticed—materials like industrial sand, pipe, and chemicals for the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells, some states are grappling with changed train routes, speeds and traffic patterns that spell new hazards for pedestrians and motorists.

Ready for expansion?
Adding to risk are surging U.S. passenger railroads, which typically operate on the same tracks as freight. The number of people struck and killed by passenger trains last year, about 255, was the highest toll of non-passenger fatalities for those railroads in 40 years of record-keeping by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

The increase in fatalities raises questions whether the nation is prepared for the massive rail expansion already underway. Railroads plan record capital spending of $29 billion this year. They'll lay new track, double existing track, buy locomotives and build terminals.....

....The most populous states had the greatest number of train fatalities. California, with 141 deaths, and Texas, with 65, together accounted for 25 percent of the total. California was one of the few places that the majority of fatalities were due to passenger trains. Across the country, 70 percent of those who died on railroads in 2014, some 575 people, were killed by freight trains.

Freight rail traffic increased 4.5 percent last year, a substantial bump after two prior years of declining carloads. That drop-off was due mainly to falling demand for rail's longtime mainstay commodity—coal. But freight rebounded due to strong shipping of consumer goods and its single fastest-growing commodity, crude oil, up 20.1 percent over 2013 to 493,126 carloads in 2014, the Association of American Railroads reported.


Fracking's broad footprint
The rail industry is quick to point out that crude oil is only 2 percent of total freight traffic. But that understates the far-reaching impact that the changing U.S. energy picture has had in reshaping the railroad business. 

Consider Wisconsin’s 16 deaths on train tracks in 2014—a 167 percent increase over the prior year and double the average of the previous six years.

“Rail traffic in Wisconsin is growing exponentially!” says a warning on the web site of state Railroad Commissioner Jeff Plale.  “Trains are running throughout the state at higher speeds, more frequently, and sometimes on lines that have either been closed or have not seen trains in years."

Wisconsin's rail resurgence is due to its status as the No. 1 state for the mining and hauling of high-quality industrial sand, which is a crucial ingredient for hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. Sand is one of rail's fastest-growing commodities, and Wisconsin tax revenue receipts from railroads are up 90 percent since 2006.....    more here

Can you write a comment or 3?

Action Alert! Thanks Don!

Hello friends,

There are three important bills in the legislature that reduce the risk of oil trains. 

These bills will be opposed by industry and will need a very strong push from us.  Please submit comments of support for the following three bills, one at a time.

A note from Laura (who testified in Olympia last week), on what our focus should be here:

I was specifically told, by two RR union members who are lobbyists, NOT to mention environmental concerns, don't mention carbon, don't mention your opposition to coal and oil trains.  Don't even bring up the "E" word.
This is a safety issue for the railroaders and nothing else. We can blow it for them by going beyond safety when we contact our legislators in writing or in person about these bills.

HB 1809  Requires more crewmembers on hazardous trains.

Encourage your legislator to require 4 crew members on unit oil trains. 

Click here to comment.

HB 1284  Addresses yardmaster fatigue

Encourage your legislator to protect yardmasters from overwork and fatigue by placing those on Class I railroads under Federal hours of service regulation.

Click here to write in support of this bill 

HB 1808 places everyone who transports train crews under UTC.

Several years ago, two people were killed in an accident related to an unregulated shuttle driver.  Require the Utilities and Transportation Commission in Olympia to regulate these charter shuttle companies.

Click here to urge your legislator to support HB 1808.

Easy Peasy!

Derailment A Reminder That Ethanol, Too, Moves By Rail

via Roll Call

Back in 2012 the number of rail shipments of ethanol were 30 percent greater than the number of carloads of crude oil shipped by rail.
But according to AAR president Edward Hamberger’s  testimony at Tuesday’s House hearing, about 500,000 carloads of oil were shipped by rail last year, so oil by rail has now surpassed ethanol by rail.
Hamberger also noted that “exactly seven cars were in an accident that released crude oil out of about 500,000. That’s 99.999 percent safety.”
But Jared Margolis, a staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in response to Wednesday’s ethanol spill, “The train derailment and ethanol spill now affecting the Mississippi River is just the latest reminder that the Department of Transportation is not taking aggressive enough steps to protect us from the growing threat posed by use of out-dated DOT-111 tank cars.”

BNSF plans $189M in rail work across state

By Eric Florip, Columbian transportation & environment reporter, The Columbian

BNSF Railway will spend $189 million toward maintenance and improvements on its track system in Washington this year, the company announced Friday.
The work will include more than 1,000 miles of track surfacing and undercutting, the replacement of almost 50 miles of rail and 200,000 railroad ties, among other fixes. Areas of focus will include BNSF’s Columbia River Gorge main line east of Vancouver and the route between Vancouver and Seattle, said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. BNSF also expects to start construction this year on the replacement of a railroad bridge over the Washougal River in Camas.

Climate, Oil, Rail- the "what me worry?" edition....

Why 'climate change' will not be on our 2015 editorial agenda

12/20/14    By The Oregonian Editorial Board

We asked readers last month to help us choose the six or seven topics that will constitute our 2015 editorial agenda. Readers responded with scores of online comments and dozens of emails and letters to the editor, many of which urged us to focus on climate change, either as a stand-alone agenda item or a core component of an item focusing on environmental issues. These readers will be disappointed when our agenda appears next month.....   read more here

How Native Americans have shaped the year's biggest environmental debates

And how lawmakers can improve their record next year.

Krista Langlois Dec. 17, 2014   High Country News
 
As we head into 2015, here’s a look back at how Western tribes shaped — or tried to shape — some of the year’s biggest natural resource stories...... more here
 

Even oil could face rail shortages soon

Mark Reilly, Managing Editor- Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal   12/22/14

Tougher rules on shipping crude by rail mean oil producers in North Dakota's Bakken region could soon face the unwelcome choice of spending more to ship by truck or cutting back on production altogether.

That's the takeaway from a Wall Street Journal report that says that the Railway Supply Institute is warning that tens of thousands of rail cars will be sidelined because they no longer meet code in the wake of new safety regulations on shipping crude oil by train.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has mandated that rail cars carrying flammable liquids meet higher safety standards. North Dakota regulators also toughened its own rules on shipping, saying that volatile gases had to be removed from crude oil before shipping....   read more here

Local fire chiefs worry about train hazmat incidents

Marni Pyke    Daily Herald   Dec. 22, 2014

A continued spike in oil trains and recent high-profile explosions and pollution spills across the United States have suburban fire departments playing defense.

First-responders interviewed by the Daily Herald for this series of reports on railway hazardous materials releases said they train continually and have mutual aid agreements for worst-case scenarios. But all the forethought in the world could be trumped by issues beyond their control, authorities warn.

video Just in case

 Aurora firefighter/paramedic John Ross, a hazmat specialist, demonstrates equipment that detects and identifies hazardous chemicals.  Scott Sanders | Staff Photographer

 

"If you had a major incident involving Bakken oil, it would tax several community resources, not just one community," Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Keith Krestan said.

"We train ... we are prepared for the 'what ifs.' But ... no department in the state of Illinois is going to have all the resources on hand to deal with a major railroad incident."...    read more here

Oil links today:       h/t naked capitalism

An Annotated History Of Oil Prices Since 1861 Business Insider
The reason oil could drop as low as $20 per barrel Reuters
U.S. Seeks BP Fine of Up to $18 Billion for Gulf Oil Spill Disaster Bloomberg
The Alarming Research Behind New York’s Fracking Ban The Atlantic
Hopes, Fears, Doubts Surround Cuba’s Oil Future ABC. “One of the most prolific oil and gas basins on the planet sits just off Cuba’s northwest coast.” So now they tell us.

UP begins Canada-to-Calif. CBR runs/ Seattle tunnel safety risk

UP begins Canada-to-California CBR service

by  Bruce E. Kelly  Railway Age   11/25/14

Union Pacific’s Can-Am Corridor linking western Canada with the western U.S. entered a new era on Nov. 24, 2014, when the first unit train of Canadian crude rolled across the international border at Eastport, Idaho, headed for a distribution terminal near Bakersfield, Calif. The 97 loaded tank cars, owned by Phillips 66, were powered by two locomotives on the head end, plus a single distributed power unit on the rear.

Unit crude-by-rail (CBR) service via the Can-Am represents a major increase in the level of crude traffic that UP and partner Canadian Pacific Railway already move over this route....

... during the first half of 2014, rail-to-barge service through the PNW reportedly brought more Bakken crude to California than direct rail service did.

How many California facilities will ultimately benefit from this new CP-UP unit crude corridor is not yet known. One source indicates there could be an average of one trainload of crude per day coming south out of Canada. UP spokesman Aaron Hunt declined to provide figures for expected train volumes, but he did confirm that UP unit trains carrying Canadian crude will now routinely travel through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to reach California. He tells Railway Age, “We expect to run crude trains on this route moving forward.”   read more here

 

Danger below? Oil trains use 105-year-old tunnel below Seattle

By Jeff Burnside   Nov 24, 2014    KOMOnews.com

 

SEATTLE -- A train carrying up to three million gallons of highly flammable Bakken crude oil runs right under downtown Seattle through a century-old tunnel that does not meet modern safety standards, according to BNSF Railway and Seattle fire officials. 

Seattle's Assistant Fire Chief Alan Vickery said the dramatic increase in the amount of oil being shipped by rail is creating a new risk facing downtown Seattle unlike anything they've ever seen.....
read more here

Unacceptable Risks/ Shippers Vent at Annual Meet/ Benicia Mayor Stands her Ground

A fire from a train derailment burns uncontrollably in ND

Addressing the unacceptable risks from Bakken crude-oil trains

The Seattle Times  11/19/14

Contributing to this column are State Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark and tribal leaders Tim Ballew II, Lummi Nation; Jim Boyd, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; Brian “Spee~Pots” Cladoosby, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community; William B. Iyall, Cowlitz Indian Tribe; Maria Lopez, Hoh Indian Tribe; David Lopeman, Squaxin Island Tribe; Fawn Sharp, Quinault Indian Nation; Charles Woodruff, Quileute Tribe; Herman Williams Sr., Tulalip Tribes; and Gary Burke, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

CHANGES in the global energy market are threatening to turn Washington into a classic oil-boom state, focused more on short-term profits than the safety of its citizens, the health of its irreplaceable ecosystems and the treaty rights of sovereign tribal nations....

...In Washington, crude-oil transportation routes border hundreds of miles of vulnerable aquatic ecosystems, from the Columbia River to Puget Sound, that our people cherish and the state has a responsibility to protect. The environmental destruction that would result from a similar disaster in Washington could take decades and billions of taxpayer dollars to repair..... read more here

Shippers vent collective spleens at NITL session

Carriers burned in effigy at shipper panel session at the National Industrial Transportation League's annual meeting.

DC Velocity       By Staff    11/19/14

The carrier bashing reverberated throughout the Broward County, Fla., convention center. A panel of air, rail, ocean, and truck shippers, surrounded by a group of 60 or so highly sympathetic and frustrated shipper brethren, yesterday took the collective carrier universe to the woodshed for any number of infractions, legitimate or otherwise.

The panel, presenting at the National Industrial Transportation League's annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., bemoaned the capacity shortages that have struck every mode. It also sharply criticized carriers for inefficient, unreliable, and inconsistent service that they said only continues to worsen.....

....On the rail side, Randy Brown, vice president for transportation logistics, North America, for agricultural and food service giant Cargill, said rail carriers are giving the red-hot crude-by-rail higher priority than intermodal and carload traffic, a decision that has been a source of chagrin for all nonenergy shippers. He said major railroads have been slow to hire and train crews, even thought the process takes about a year before crews are sufficiently qualified to be productive. Brown singled out eastern rail company Norfolk Southern Corp. as the chief offender in this area. He also said the congestion problems in Chicago, the nation's main rail hub which serves six North American Class I carriers, is a "25- to 50-year problem that will never get fixed.".

Brown said carload traffic is currently approaching 2006-07 levels, the last period of very strong demand. Unfortunately, today's rail network, beset all year by congestion problems that began before the terrible winter weather that paralyzed large chunks of the network, is at the "breaking point," he said. Brown said anywhere near a repeat of last winter's conditions would be close to apocalyptic for the rail system.....  read more here

Benicia releases opinion on mayor's alleged 'bias' related to Valero project

City fears legal risks to pending Valero refinery crude rail decision

By Tony Burchyns   timesheraldonline.com   11/19/14

BENICIA    The city has released its legal opinion on Mayor Elizabeth Patterson's alleged "bias" related to the Valero refinery's pending oil train project....

.... The City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to release the opinion to the public. The decision followed Patterson's announcement last month that the city had advised her not to participate in any upcoming decisions related to Valero's controversial project.

"The city attorney asserts I have a conflict of interest that should prevent my involvement in the proceedings," Patterson said Tuesday. "While conflicts of interest are serious matters, in this instance it seems my conflict of interest is the health, welfare and safety of the people of Benicia, and on that I will not yield."....  read more here

Crude processing app withdrawn in NY/ Oil by rail blocks coal shipments

Groups hail suspension of crude oil plan in New Windsor

 John Ferro, Poughkeepsie Journal    November 7, 2014

Global Partners has withdrawn its application to bring crude oil processing to New Windsor

Local environmental groups are hailing the shelving of a plan to bring crude oil processing operations into New Windsor. [New York state]

Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson issued statements Friday applauding news that Global Partners of Waltham, Massachusetts, has withdrawn its permit applications with the state Department of Environmental Conservation....

...It also called for the installation of boilers to heat rail cars and tanks. That technology can be used to reduce the viscosity of thicker, tar sands crude so it can be pumped from one container to another.

The withdrawal of the applications comes as the state has made it increasingly difficult for Global to expand its crude operations both in New Windsor and in Albany, where a similar proposal is under review..... read more here

US Power Plants Struggling To Rebuild Coal Supplies As Booming Crude Oil Shipments Jam Nation's Railways

By Maria Gallucci   International Business News  11/06/14

 

U.S. power plants are low on coal supplies this fall, in part because the nation’s railways are jammed with rising shipments of crude oil. The shortage is forcing utilities in several states to shut down coal plants or curtail operations in an attempt to preserve their stockpiles ahead of the winter.

Coal stocks at electric power plants totaled 121 million tons at the end of August, a relatively low amount compared to levels in recent years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday. “Issues with delivery-by-rail are making it more difficult to ship larger volumes of coal and rebuild stockpiles at coal-fired power plants,” the federal statistics agency said....

... Utilities burned through much of their coal stockpiles last winter, when the brutal cold snap caused by the polar vortex forced people to crank up the heat. Now plant operators in the Midwest and Northeast are trying to not only replenish supplies but also stockpile more coal than they had in 2013, according to the EIA....  read more here
 

 

Amtrak confronts freight in Supreme Court battle

As punctuality plummets, Amtrak confronts freight in Supreme Court battle

Sean Reilly, E&E Publishing    October 31, 2014

....For Amtrak travelers, such schedule-shredding snafus are becoming more common as delays push long-distance train punctuality to its lowest point in years, driving off customers and raising costs.

Along the 15 routes in the railroad's national network, on-time performance was 41 percent in August, compared to 66 percent a year earlier, even with a fudge factor that allows trains to reach their end destination as much as a half-hour late and still be counted as on time. Worst off were passengers on the Capitol Limited, which runs daily between Chicago and Washington, D.C. For August, travelers between the two cities had about a 3 percent chance of arriving on time, the most recent available statistics show.

By many indicators, "the situation is worsening, not improving," D.J. Stadtler, Amtrak's vice president of operations, said at a Surface Transportation Board hearing last month.....

....The case is now before the Supreme Court, with oral arguments scheduled for Dec. 8.

The legal crux is the fuzzy question of whether Amtrak, a creation of Congress that is supposed to be run as a for-profit business, should be considered a private enterprise or government agency.

In court papers, parties on both sides paint the practical stakes in stark terms. The appellate court ruling "thwarts the intent of Congress and threatens the future of passenger rail service in the United States," the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocacy group that supports "clean transportation," said in a friend-of-the-court filing..... read more here

Oil tanker trains threaten to trash US northwest- and other news

Oil tanker trains threaten to trash US northwest

America’s expanding oil production threatens the pristine region of the country with a rash of new oil terminals along coast

 

Pic: Carol Von Canon/Flickr

rtcc.org    29 October 2014         By Valerie Brown

Oil and coal producers in the US are planning to use mile-long tanker trains to transport vast quantities of fossil fuels to the coast through areas that environmental groups believe should be protected.

The change in world fossil fuel production, consumption and costs caused by tar sands exploitation in Canada and the fracking boom in the US is causing what Bill McKibben − author, environmental activist and co-founder of the international climate campaign group 350.org − calls a “chokepoint” in the unspoiled Northwest of the country.....  read more here

Canada toughens train brake rules, to impose 'audit blitz'

By Richard Valdmanis    Oct 29, 2014     (Reuters)

 - Canada has issued an emergency order to railways detailing how many handbrakes they must set on unattended trains to prevent deadly runaways, and will hire new staff to conduct an "audit blitz" of rail companies' safety systems.

The changes are the latest in a slew of regulatory moves in North America since a train carrying crude oil crashed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, last year, killing 47 people and highlighting the dangers from a surge in oil transport by rail.

The announcement on Wednesday came in response to the Canadian Transportation Safety Board's final report in August on the Lac-Megantic crash that found shortfalls in railway safety culture and federal oversight of the industry....

.....Canada's Conservative government has already imposed several new regulations in the wake of Lac-Megantic, including toughening tank car safety and requiring railways do risk assessments, produce emergency response plans, and improve the security of parked trains.... read more here

 

Unknotting rail congestion compels investment

Railway Age     by  Frank N. Wilner     10/28/14

Unraveling the knot restricting rail network fluidity cannot be achieved through Surface Transportation Board (STB) intimidation of rail CEOs, or by the agency's issuance of an emergency service order instructing one railroad to operate over the tracks of another, or by merging the nation's seven major rail systems into a North American duopoly.

None would cause to appear, in sufficiently short order, the required additional locomotives and track capacity essential to curing the problem.....

.... The knot of railroad congestion is one of capacity constraint. It imposes costs on freight shippers, Amtrak, and the economy as a whole, plus menaces homeland security. Unraveling the knot entails added capital investment — and time.....

.....public spending on infrastructure improvements generates impressive economic returns to society, according to academic studies such as Canada 2020 Think Tank. It found that $1 billion in infrastructure spending creates almost 17,000 jobs, including manufacturing, business services and transportation; increases gross domestic product by as much as $1.8 billion; boosts tax revenue by at least 30% without increasing taxes; and, longer-term, lowers production costs for business..... read more here

Truth in Advertising ? -   in the oil business.....

 

Farmers Competing with Crude Oil Over Railroad Use- video

MyStateLine.com  9/01/14    


Rockford- Farmers are preparing to ship their crops across the country after an record harvest season. Those sending their crops by train may be derailed by a growing problem: crude oil is in competition with grain for railroad use, and Senator Dick Durbin says there are not enough trains for both to transport goods efficiently.

Durbin says, “In the northern part of the Midwest, the upper Midwest, there's a competition between the farmers trying to move grain to markets, and oil, crude oil that's being shifted in the same area in tank cars.”......more here  also see video here

Big Oil investments, reliance on Rail, Russian-roulette instead of Safety

Crude Oil Rail Terminal Operator Files for IPO

24/7WallSt   By Paul Ausick August 31, 2014 

inShare

Transporting crude oil from the Bakken field in the Upper Midwest and the oil sands of Alberta has become a big business for railroads. As long as pipeline transportation remains constrained, railroads will continue to offer the best solution for producers. With that in mind, a company called USD Partners L.P. on Friday filed for an initial public offering to raise $150 million.

The company currently owns a crude-by-rail terminal in Hardesty, Alberta, with capacity to load two 120-car unit trains per day. USD Partners also owns ethanol terminals in San Antonio, Texas, and West Colton, Calif......   Read more here

Bakken crude oil production relies on rail shipment

BY MICHAEL MARTZ   Richmond Times-Dispatch  08/30/14

The frequency and volume of Bakken crude rail shipments are driven by oil production in North Dakota that is second only to Texas in the U.S. Production there rose from 81,000 barrels a day in 2006 to 900,000 barrels a day last year.

With production exceeding pipeline capacity, “rail became attractive because of the location and the fact there is a ready market for (light crude oil) on the East Coast,” said Sandy Fielden, an analyst at RBN Energy in Houston.....   more here

 

Rail safety measures due in Virginia after oil-train wrecks

August 30, 2014 By Michael Martz  Richmond Times-Dispatch 

The same day a CSX train carrying almost 3 million gallons of crude oil derailed in downtown Lynchburg, federal investigators took a sample of oil at a rail transfer terminal 1,750 miles away in North Dakota.

The oil sampled in North Dakota was owned by Plains Marketing, the same Texas company that owned roughly 30,000 gallons of crude oil that either burned in a fiery, black plume above Lynchburg or gushed into the James River from one of three tanker cars that tumbled down the riverbank at 2 p.m. April 30.
Federal tests showed the North Dakota oil was highly flammable and belonged in the most hazardous category of flammable liquids under federal regulations.....    

....Jewell, the Richmond fire captain, said CSX won’t tell him the worst-case scenario of an oil-train derailment in Richmond, but he has his own blueprint — a map that shows concentric evacuation zones of a quarter- and half-mile around the triple rail crossing in Shockoe Bottom.

Emergency guidelines would require evacuation of people in a half-mile radius if one rail car caught fire and an additional quarter-mile for every other car that is “impinged” by flames that could cause a vapor explosion.       \more here

Report Shows Coal, Oil Trains Would Quadruple Rail Traffic, Alarming Lawmakers

By Bellamy Pailthorp

File image

“The economic benefits of these proposals are incredibly modest. The costs are off the charts,” said state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle

Kplu.org     July 16, 2014

Lawmakers are expressing concerns over an updated report outlining the combined impacts of coal and oil trains that would roll through the Northwest if plans for export terminals move forward.
Elected officials in the Leadership Alliance Against Coal, a group that formed under the leadership of former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, met in Seattle Tuesday to hear from the author of the report.
Proposals for two export terminals are still on the table in Washington: one in Cherry Point, near Bellingham, and one in Longview. A third is planned for the Port of Morrow near Boardman, Oregon.

Shipments of domestic oil products are already slowing rail traffic. They’ve more than doubled over the past four years. And if all plans for export terminals go forward, added volumes from coal and oil trains would be more than triple the current shipments for agriculture, according to the report commissioned by the Western Organization of Resource Councils, a network of grassroots community groups.

“We’re talking about capacity problems on every single route," said the report's author, Terry Whiteside. "We’re talking about service disaster for a while.” ...... continued here