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Report: Oil trains could return to Lac-Megantic in 18 months
Put the tracks in another location. Make a straighter path for the oil trains that is West to East which avoids going through the town and around the edge of the Lake.
George
It just occurred to me that building a bypass to avoid potential accidents may open a can a worms, as if you do this for one community it may raise the prospect of other communities demanding the same after a spill which will more than likely occur again somewhere.
I thought that at one time a bypass around the town was on the table. Its good to see a pro-active approach none the less when it comes to safety and taking into consideration the community’s well founded apprehensions.
I too thought they were going to route the track around Lac Magentic proper, but I have not heard anymore about that recently. It seems to me that rerouting would be the best overall solution. It is a good thing to maintain the track properly, but the best track in the world would not have prevented what happened in this case.
Those poor people in that town are going to be VERY nervous every time an oil train comes through their town (or any other train for that matter) for a VERY long time to come…and who can blame them?
It is possible that better track may have prevented the accident if the runaway could have rolled through town without derailing. However, I don’t know the speed the train was travelling or how sharp the curve was. The real prevention is to prevent the runaway in the first place.
…make that “Saint John”, NB, please. NB is a “province”. DPM would not be amused.
The curves around the lake and through the town are very sharp. It was wishful thinking that there would never be a derailment.
This will surely help their ailing economy.
Mr. Rowell states the best solution. In addition to preventing runaways the railroads could use track inspectors in state of the art high railers which would occupy the block ahead of the hazardous materials consist to detect track problems.
The bypass still is on the table. But who wants to pay?
A local newspaper estimates that the bypass could cost anywhere between 50 and 175 million (Cdn). The Quebec government does not want to pay for it because it fears that any other city having a rail line going through will ask for the same favour to relocate it (Drummondville comes to mind).
Good news.
Perhaps the canadian govt could tell other towns that would want a bypass…“if your town looses 47 souls in a horrific RR derailment, we will consider a by-pass for you also” Not by-passing lac-megantic, is a mistake.