Homeland Security: Toxic Railway Inaction

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Disclaimer: the following views do not neccessarily represent the views and opinions of the original poster, not that of the Management. It was sent to me by one of my friends that knows I have an interest in railroads. It is from “The Progress Report”, an email he receives weekly.

HOMELAND SECURITY
Toxic Railway Inaction

One of the most major, overlooked vulnerabilities in homeland security today is the U.S. railway system. There are 170,000 miles of railway in the United States. Each year 83 million tons of hazardous material is shipped on these railways. Yet even after the attacks of 9/11 and the string of train bombings in Madrid, the White House still lacks a comprehensive strategy to decrease the ongoing risk of terrorist attack. The administration has not required the rail industry to safeguard shipments of hazardous materials. Bush’s 2005 budget allocation for train security was $100 million, equal to what the U.S. spends on eight typical hours in Iraq. The White House also has not worked to compel the private sector to safeguard hazardous materials. In fact, as an ongoing case in Washington, DC, shows, the Bush administration is actually trying to block local communities from taking proactive steps to make major cities and critical infrastructure less vulnerable to terrorist attacks, even as the federal government has failed to do so. (Want to know more about how to deal with challenges faced by rail security? The Center for American Progress will address this issue today at noon in a panel on “New Strategies to Protect America: Putting Rail Security on the Right Track.”)

FIGHT IN WASHINGTON: Washington, DC, a prime target for terrorist attack, passed a law banning the transportation of highly toxic chemicals through the city. (The city’s railway line runs just blocks from Congress, the Supreme Court and h

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I don’t think the city has a leg to stand on. However, the arguments presented are compelling. Both Washington, DC and New York City are different and unique. I would be interested in hearing what both the White House and the United Nations has to say on this issue.

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[V]

Clueless freeking idiots !!

What are they gunna do? Reroute trains around DC. Then next start rerouting trains away from any town that gets a paranoid hair up there ***. Where are they going to reroute to? Somebody elses town.

I am far more worried about an asteroid comming out of the sky and landing on my forehead. Why don’t they figure out a way to reroute that!!!

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I like how all the strategies dont really do anything…

Adrianspeeder

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I love when they give the 100,000 people figure. That number is IF a train with hazardous materials derails on the 4th of July DURING the fireworks display and the wind is blowing towards the Mall and no one does anything to warn anyone about the accident.

This number is always the one they use in the news because it sounds more impressive than the realistic number.

Working for a government agency, it is always fun to see how our press releases are distorted to make a better story in the paper. Sometimes you wonder if the report can read.

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Is 10,000 a better number for you then? maybe a regular work day, only 1,000 tops? Thats not so bad, only a 1000 dead, maybe only 5,000 injured, only a few hundred of those will be scarred for life, or will die before thier lawsuits reach the court. Is that a better scenario for you?[xx(]

Sheeesh, Jesus, Joseph and Mary! the numbers are irrelevant. Focus on the facts for criss-sakes. Have we already forgotten all the hoopla we had recently when that NS train went thru an open switch and collided with a parked train carrying liquid chlorine??? What if that happened in downtown Omaha or Chicago and not some rural area???

The RR’s have known about this potential disaster for YEARS now but have always placed $$$'s before the public well-being. Remember UP intentioanlly derailed a runaway out here, without notifying the police or fire department because they were more concerned with keeping the runaway out of there yard, so it get sent onto a siding and goes KABLOOEY into a residential neighborhood. All so UP’s precious yard doesnt get f###'ed over. You could almost hear in UP’s responce “So a bunch of families homes are destroyed? Screw-em, they’re not important, we have to look at the BIG PICTURE, how much $$$ would WE lose if our tracks were shut down for a few days…” Contempatble behavior, what if that runaway was fu

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Wow CSX gave Bush $600,000! That like what we spend in 3 minutes in Iraq if $100M per 8 hours is true.

Maybe we should just shut down CSX altogether. Mean old railroad.

NS would stand to benefit a lot if all that nasty stuff had to be diverted. So if DC gets this ban, what would happen if our governor here in PA, Ed Rendell, were to decide that he doesn’t want this crap rolling through Harrisburg? Then it would really have a long way to get to New Jersey.

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You know if they keep spouting off in public about this, they are going to give the enemy ideas. They need to develop some skills in stealth. I don’t hear the C.I.A going about running their mouths off on potential intelligence weaknesses; a little more caution and thinking is required of this department.

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[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Is 10,000 a better number for you then? maybe a regular work day, only 1,000 tops? Thats not so bad, only a 1000 dead, maybe only 5,000 injured, only a few hundred of those will be scarred for life, or will die before thier lawsuits reach the court. Is that a better scenario for you?[xx(]

Sheeesh, Jesus, Joseph and Mary! the numbers are irrelevant. Focus on the facts for criss-sakes. Have we already forgotten all the hoopla we had recently when that NS train went thru an open switch and collided with a parked train carrying liquid chlorine??? What if that happened in downtown Omaha or Chicago and not some rural area???

The RR’s have known about this potential disaster for YEARS now but have always placed $$$'s before the public well-being. Remember UP intentioanlly derailed a runaway out here, without notifying the police or fire department because they were more concerned with keeping the runaway out of there yard, so it get sent onto a siding and goes KABLOOEY into a residential neighborhood. All so UP’s precious yard doesnt get f###'ed over. You could almost hear in UP’s responce "So a bunch of families homes are destroyed? Screw-em, they’re not important, we have to look at the BIG PICTURE, how much $$$ would WE lose if our tracks were shut down for a f

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Im more worried about “OTHER” things going on in my life than what the Railroads transport everyday. Such as a Stupid driver pulling right in front of a tanker truck full of fuel. I could careless about what’s in those Tank cars that go by my house eveyday. As far as im conserned,who realy cares.
BNSFrailfan.

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Vic,
I agree with you, it matters not one bit if it is one, or one thousand…

But, I also agree with the decision to derail the runaway anywhere besides the yard.
If you have ever seen a exploding LPG tankcar, you will understand that you never, ever want one to got off in a yard with other LPGs.

If I was the dispatcher and was faced with the decision, I most likely would have done the same…and remember, the dispatcher really dosnt know, beyond what the big board shows…he or she has no idea if the siding is a bustleing neighborhood, or a warehouse/industrial area.

I have seen the photos from the SP Englewood (Houston) yard, after a LPG
T-boned another…and the neighborhood across from it on Liberty drive…the neighborhood was gone…not burned down, or tore up…just flat gone.
Tank after tank of LPG, Etheyl Metheyl awful stuff went off, something like thirity five tanks exploded, one right after another, each one sending hot pieces of tankcar into the next one, one hell of a chain reaction.

When they got it all put out, if you didnt know it was a rail yard, you wouldnt reconize that part of Englewood.

Luck was with the SP that day, it was afternoon, and the neighborhood was pretty empty…I dont have the death count, but it could have been much worse.

It ended up with the SP buying the entire neighborhood, then bulldozing the left overs of the yard, cars and all, across Liberty road and into the field where the houses had been.

Most of it is still there.

So, what choice do you have?
Let a runaway bomb into a yard full of other bombs, surrounded by neighborhoods, or dump it where you can?

And no, there really is no way they could have cleared out a track or two in the yard, it isnt that easy or quick.

Now, all of this dosnt relieve UP from the responsibility or the damage or death caused…the fault is theirs, but they, and the dispatcher who sent

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what do you know…another “the sky is falling” BS report… lets all just walk around in bio-protective body suits and live in plastic bubbles… no matter what the government dose will not stop any action of the person that wishes to do harm is hell bent on doing it… the whole Hazmat threat might be a risk…but its no more risk then someone hijacking more airliners and doing 9-11 agin in a differnt city… look at the reports that come out about airline securtiy since 9-11…its still a joke… and the goverment spent millions and federilzed the same people that didnt give a crap at airports befor 9-11…this is nothing more then another “make you think your safe” move on behalf of the government… i admit we are living in a more dangourse world today since 9-11…but at some point this pearinora has to end… if the government realy wants to stop things befor they happen… the problems with INS and deporting illegal alians should be the first thing on the list… how may sleeper cells are here in the US becouse the people are here illeage or on expired visas and INS didnt give a crap… we may not know untill its to late… but moving hazmat trains form one area to another becouse they “might” poss a target will solve nothing… it will just start a chain reaction in which other citys and borrows follow suit…then what? no hazmat cargo on trains? ok…it has to be shipes somehow…trucks? you want even more hazmat trucks on the highways? with even more risk invloved should a handfull of them be hijacked at a truckstop? think about this one… someone parking a few trucks right outside key buildings… remember Oklahoma City? their is no such thing as true safty… no matter what you do…thier is some risk invloved in life… banning railroad cars of Hazmat sounds good in thyory…but actuly solves nothing in the long run…just another “feel good” move by the government to make people “think” that they are actuly doing something good…
just my thoughts on the issue…and its NOT becou

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“…So, really, I need a honest answer, one with details…
How do you protect his stuff?..”

Ed
I honestly dont have any kind of answer for you, thats what spooks me so much about this situation. I worry less about a terrorist than I do about a stupid teenage gangmember trying to impress his friends by jimmying open and throwing a switch under a high speed frieght.

Having been here when a LPG tanker exploded in San Pedro, we heard the explosion 20 miles away, I know what you are talking about the danger of chain reaction fireballs, concern was that UP decided to derail after 20 minutes when they could have let authorities know a wreck was coming and where they were going to send it. It was possible for the police to evacuate the residents in City of Commerce if they had known right away. I understand UP had to make a tough decision but man o’ man I keep thinking what if the lead car was a chlorine tanker and it busted open in that city, the cloud could have spread for 10 miles downwind in some of the denseist areas of the city.

I dont know what we can do to prevent this scenario, but between idiots trackside or in cars going around gates, decaying infrastructure, ever increasing train loads, and overworked crews…unfortunatly I see this as inevitable happening somewhere in the US, all I can hope is that t whereever it happens the emergency personel are trained to handle it. Dread to think if they were not ready and drove into a toxic cloud.

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I dont know either, Vic…
I have been in this business 8 plus years, not a long time, but time enough to realize that the sheer size of it precludes protecting it from most outside forces…
I have also lived in Houston, on and off, most of my life, and one of the things that goes unsaid, but is understood by most here is that the ship channel area is a single, huge bomb under the right circumstances.

I know LA has some areas, and a few refineries, in the same situation.

These places were built long before anyone even imagined something like 9-11…heck, most of the ones here are WWI era plants…and it never occured to the people building them that haveing neighborhood spring up around them was a bad thing…in fact, most of the people who live in those neighborhoods work in the plants.

As for the 20 minute lead time on the UP runaway…well, here at our desk, 20 minutes is a long time, out on the railroad with a runaway, 20 minutes is a eye blink.
Should they have tried?
Yup, they should have…but in retrospect, I dont think they could have gotton more than a few folks out…20 minutes to evac a neighborhood isnt enough, and the traffic jam it would have created would bottle neck them all in one place anyway.
I still think they should have notified the authorities asap…but you and I both know the chain of command at the city level would have burned up the 20 minutes before anything could be done…
You dial 911, the 911 operator talks to their supervisor, who call the chief of police, who calls the mayor who takes a minute to decide, then tells the chief to evac…by then, times up.

But the attempt should have been made!

We seem hell bent on applying Western values to a people who live in a Eastern culture…we value individual life and liberity…they dont, never have and never will.
We view goverment as a servant of the people, something that responds to the will and wishes of its citizen…
T

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Best way to protect is fear. Use just enough propaganda and demonstration to make it look well protected. Use intelligence officers, shoot a bad guy or give him one nasty sentence, surround with SWAT someone who is suspected of terrorism or do the sunglasses on the guys with suits pulling a guy into the unmarked car routine a few times. Actors could even be used for that.

Basically that is rather harsh but alternatively like csxengineer98 said, live in a bubble.

I would just say that trains were never Al Quaida’s choice to begin with so why make them reconsider? The government is giving out a little too much information to the public that will cause nothing but fear and panic to the general populace and ideas to our enemies. They are putting both of our countries at risk as we live very close. If something bad happens to you, we will also get it so it is in our interest as well that the U.S Department of Homeland Security was a little more in-camera with their findings and keep it within government and security agencies and not in the general populace which is full of wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing.

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Actually the best way to stop terrisom would be to do what Black Jack Pershing did. In the early 1900’s we were having trouble in the Phillapines from Muslim geurillas. Pershing was given a hunting license to find and eliminate the threat. Of couse Teddy Roosevelt was in office at the time. Pershing found the geurillas tried them under military courts and they were all sentenced to death. Now here is were it gets interesting. H brought them all into the courtyard along with a pig killed the pig drip the blood from the pig over the condemmed and then had the marksman dip the bullets in the pigs blood then shot them. Afterwords he made it clear that this is what would happen to any muslim that attacked the US in the Phillipines. Pigs blood on the bullets in a firing squad kept us safe for 40+ years in the phillipines. Now of course we couldn’t do it the ACLU would be all over us for trampling the prisoners religus rights.

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Edbenton,
While I find no specific flaw in the Pershing plan, I do find flaw in bashing the ACLU. Granted, the ACLU has sometimes taken cases that seem to fly in the face of common sense; but at the same time they are also one of the last defenses you have in preventing your government from turning the US into a police state, with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights becoming at best merely suggestions, at worst irrelevant.

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Also throw in that Pershing today would have been tried as a War Criminal for some of the atrocities commited under his command after the Spanish American war…The Occupation is little known outside of the circles of some history nuts, the first decade of the Phillipino occupation by the US was Brutal, plan and simple. After the Spanish were forced out , instead of granting independence like Cuba got, the US essentailly “took over” the Phillipenes as an Imperial Colony, the resentment level there lasted for almost 2 decades until the 1920’s and 30’s when the US finally relinquished self authority back to the Phillipines. Then came the Japanese invasion during WW2, when the Phillipinos were subjected to far harsher and worse treatment than anything Pershing’s men did and the return of American troops was treated with great celebration. We have had a decent enough relationship with them ever since.

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From what I understand the DC Coucil Woman who introduced the law banning the CSX from transporting hazardous materials through Washington, DC was given a briefing about transporting hazmats thru the city at an earlier time, but she nevertheless introduced the law. I don’t know how much information she was given.

Let’s look at this another way. For all we know CSX may have already taken steps to protect their hazmat shipments thru Washington, DC, and they have rerouted some hazmat shipments away from Washington; but, whether they are enough I don’t know. They aren’t going to tell everybody what they are doing; it’s classified information. One of the principles of safeguarding classified information is to only let those who have a need to know about a specific piece of information have access to it.

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On a totally un related note…
Vic,
Have you seen the movie yet, and is it close to the book?

Ed