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NS train derails in Pennsylvania, spills crude oil
Unfortunately this is not surprising nor unexpected. On one hand you could say this is the price of doing business and yet for all the anxiety over these spills. derailments fires and explosions…it is the same U.S public who has a thirst for oil.
You can measure the profits to be made as well as this thirst by how blindly all the parties involved plunged into this without expressing any concern, and I don’t buy the common carrier rationale.
The public, the roads, the refiners etc all equally have their hands in this sort of calculated risk and as the old saying goes, if something can go wrong…it will.
Mr. Harrison, this is yet again another overreaction. It sounds like this train was more of a mixed freight than an “oil train,” and derailments do occur. Those that have a car carrying petroleum product, or result in fatalities, or those that catch fire, get the press. The rest do not. Years ago there were trains which carried refined gasoline to local distributors for use in your car. Pipelines and trucks took this business.
NS is extraordinarily lucky there was no explosion involved. That woulda been a major disaster.
To Mr. Harrison from Florida,
I agree with what you’re saying. That is because people like Hunter Harrison & Kieth Creel are at the helm of CP, Harrison & Creel were formerly at the helm of CN (which is still working on ‘de-hunter-izing’), Michael Ward is at the helm of CSX, BNSF is owned by a man who most likely knows nothing about trains (Warren Buffett) with a network that seems to literally freeze up in the cold, and then there’s UP & NS, both of which have lower-than-average class I safety records. And don’t forget people like Burkhardt running the shortlines. I feel like this sums up all the problems with the industry. It’s the higher management sacrificing employee morale (and safety), customer service, and safety of the networks in order to improve the bottom line and line their own pockets. It’s greedy corporate America.
Is this really national news?
I’ll say it again…put a manned caboose on these trains. In this scenario the rear end could have alerted the head end that the train was off the track.
What did FRED do? Nothing till the air dumped…
Too bad for NS they have had a very good track record for not derailing trains.
Mike Price
Uhh slight problem with your statement. Coal that is hauled in railroad cars and designated to be burned in a power plant is NOT charcoal. Your comparing apples and pumpkins.
Mike Price
Uhh slight problem with your statement. Coal that is hauled in railroad cars and designated to be burned in a power plant is NOT charcoal. Your comparing apples and pumpkins.
Sorry about the double post. Fat fingers on the iPad.
I found info on the derailment on the financial pages re: Norfolk Southern stock price and the Trains magazine Newsletter, but nothing on the NS website. You would think NS having the most knowledge of the accident would at least put information, even if it’s preliminary, for their customers, shareholders and the public near the site of the accident, on their website to peruse.
Railroads really need to keep their trains on tracks. After the Quebec debacle every derailment with a tank car in the consist will be big news. Safety needs to be on everyone’s mind.
Really martin its bad press and the railroads dont need anymore bad press when it comes to crude. Like some of the other posters mentioned if this was lets say a coal or other type train then we would be discussing something else unless of coarse that coal made it into the river then omg the EPA which is 93% non essentual would have had a cow. Get that coal out of the river. Ever wonder why they put charcoal in a fishtank???
Safety is number one. The weather is the wildcard here. Coldest wettest winter is recent years. Spring cant get here soon enough.
Again?
This is really not a good time for yet another oil train derailment, especially as even without a fireball (this time, at least, one assumes from reading the above - reportedly the train was also carrying Propane - http://www.wtae.com/news/local/westmoreland/vandergrift-train-derailment/24455830) this is still yet another environmental disaster.
@EDMOND BATES - It was “mixed freight” in the sense that both propane and crude were being transported, but a brief look at the pictures shows that this was essentially an oil train. It seems to be good luck it didn’t explode, given the mixture.
No, I don’t think this is a media over-reaction. This train jumped the rails and crashed into a building. Had it been carrying ping pong balls it would have been newsworthy - that it was carrying oil made it especially so.
I remain unconvinced, especially with the “But… but… Burkhardt is a nice guy!” apologia spouted by so many industry professionals, that the railroad industry considers safety highly enough. The number of oil incidents (2013 reportedly had more than the prior 40 years put together! http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/20/4764674/more-oil-spilled-from-trains-in.html) strongly suggests that something is terribly wrong with the industry right now.
I agree with Mr. Bates. The media looks for anything that will boost its ratings, and crude is the new whipping boy. If this train had derailed anything but oil, this wouldn’t even be in the news.
The last person to see a derailment are those on the head end of any forward moving train. Not every train in the nation need s to be equipped with a caboose nor with 4-5 men crews. Just those carrying oil would require a third man.
Railroad safety has been improving for many years and is very good overall. To blame these incidents on corporate greed without any specific incidents does not help find and correct the true causes. There is no evidence more crewman in a caboose would have made any difference. Frankly, if railroads were still running 4-5 person crews with cabooses, there would be a lot more derailments because there wouldn’t be enough money to maintain the track. (Remember the Rock Island?) Or worse, this stuff would be on the highway because there wouldn’t be any more railroads.