http://www.nscorp.com/nscorphtml/releases06/stb_letter.pdf
Dave
Boy THERE is a link I wish I had never clicked on. WTF? why hide a link to trainorders.com under the fraudulent link?
What are you babbling about?
NS seems to have disabled the file.
The link is working at 20:45.
Dave
The link when first posted, directed you to a page at trainorders.com, which in turn had the link you posted on their page . Which, ended up being a dead link when tried
Did you by any chance get this link from trainorders.com originally?
Even the “properties” listed for the link you provided originally specified a target at trainorders.com…
Seems cleared up now, even got to read the letter.
But at first it was a real bummer.
That is a good letter on the “state of the railroad.”
Pretty strong statements on page 6 about regulations of transporting of HAZMATs. I would certainly like to hear Dave’s (futuremodal) comments.
ed
I think that NS is beginning to set themselves up to exit the market of carrying the more hazardous chemicals. To do that they will need the government to relieve them of a portion of their common carrier responsiblity. I think that is what that portion of the letter is about. Setting the stage.
It sounded to me as if they are setting themselves up for a HAZMAT surcharge. I dont think they could ever get away from handling HAZMAT. There would probably be a shipper’s revolution, as most of those materials have no other economic choice.
Have you ever stood by the tracks and watched a train and read the commodity decals on the tank cars. It gets scary when you see all of those chemicals.
CN runs a lot of chemicals on their line from Chicago to Michigan (GTW). Often their train 398 will have nearly 150 cars and it is not uncommon for over half to be tank cars…all coming from Louisianna and Texas.
ed
Of course there is a choice. The customer could locate his plant right next to the plant that makes the intermediate chemical.
No kidding, and I bet you don’t have much of an understanding about the exact hazard of most of the chemicals that you see. For example Ethylene Oxide is classified chemically as an Inhalation hazard but is also tertogenic ( a monster-maker) it causes birth defects and miscarriages. It is a common Chemical Intermediate that is used to make Ethylene Glycol (Antifreeze) and to sterilize items that will be damaged by heating. In times past it was used to produce the now banned military weapon Mustard Gas.
Probably because it is comparatively cheap to tranport it as the Chemical Company has a low risk of sharing the cost of any accident.