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Montreal, Maine & Atlantic can operate until Feb. 1
That silver-tongued Ed Burkhardt always seems to know what to say on slippery occasions. Whatta guy!
That silver-tongued Ed Burkhardt always seems to know what to say on slippery occasions. Whatta guy!
Am in Churchill, MB at the moment and find there are plans by HBR / Omnitrax to ship oil up its Churchill line. This is not the best piece of railroad north of The Pas, MB in the first place and secondly runs over trackage which is mainly on permafrost north of Gillam, MB where VIA passenger trains mostly travel only at 30 mph or less. I am not anti-oil being hauled by rail on such solid lines as the BNSF ex-GN Highline but the HBR Churchill line? Not a good plan in my view.
MM&A’s greatest value to pay the cost of the damages and cleanup is as a continued business. Irregardless of who is at fault in this. The only thing that management, Mr Burkhart for one, can do is to try to get a working railroad. Rebuilding that is all management could do. As for insurance may I remind everyone MM&A may not be the only party with liability. As for government do you think at this point the regulatory authorities are not going to put MM&A under a continuing microscope. Last REMINDER. The train wreck itself did not k
Last REMINDER The wreck by itself did not kill people. It was the explosion and fire of the cargo. The cargo may have been misclassified. Oil by itself will burn but does nor normally explode the way it did in this wreck.
Talk about government making industry jump through hoops!
Vermont may not want pipelines or oil trains, but they can stop or delay pipelines new pipeline construction. If a train shows up, they can’t stop it!
So again the government’s response is “Everything’s fine, you guys can continue to run”, and yet there’s the complaints here from the Burkhardt apologist caucus that somehow the government is being unfair on MMA and is making them “jump through hoops”.
Reminder: The MM&A killed around 50 people earlier this year in a horrific accident, and is declaring bankruptcy because it couldn’t be bothered to get adequate insurance.
The government is being ridiculously nice to MM&A considering the circumstances.
Really?
How will JD Irving get oil to St. John, NB… Via Pan Am?
Burkhardt should be in jail.
Where’s the anti-Amtrak idiotic nonsense criticism from the Goose??
Mr. Boyer: oil can be routed via PAR and EMRY, thru MA, NH, and ME; via SLQ/SLR/PAR, thru VT, NH, and ME to EMRY; or CN (QC, NB) to Saint John. If Irving buys the MM&A, the old route would be viable (the best solution, methinks). I can’t see VT welcoming any oil trains. They don’t even want oil or gas pipelines.
Irving’s other option is tankers up the Bay of Fundy. There goes the lobster fishery!
Correction for Burkhardt. They definitely were interested in hauling oil (as it was extremely profitable and added tons of additional traffic), but permanently screwed up that as a viable option (at least for the current company) as well as pretty much killing the current company.
Irving Oil recieves oil from the Gulf States and eslewhere as wellas shipping product out along the east coast and has done so without major spills in recent years, so shipping oil by sea is a viable option if North Dakaota reached teh sea but it does not!!!
From the very beginning I noticed that Ed Burkhart was trying to do the honorable thing and take care of the Lac Magantic mess as quickly and reasonably as possible. This will take many years to finish and I know from personnel observations that Ed will go to whatever length necessary to honor his responsibilities.
For all those who want to bash and do bash Ed Burkhardt, I will tell you that he is a very honorable man and good railroader. I have known Ed since his days with the CNW and WC. This was a tragic accident and he has admitted that mistakes were made. I feel for the families who lost their loved ones but you must also understand this is tearing Ed Burkhardt up as well.
Richard Turle: True, no sea coast at ND. However, it’s a direct route east on BNSF mainline from ND oil fields to Duluth, MN, for loading onto tankers.
Interesting to read the Canadian press and their treatment of Burkhardt - I assure you he is still the thief he was when he worked for the C&NW and when the WC Board of Directors gave him the boot. He dare not show up in Canada again - they’ll put him where he belongs - in prison.