I went to a forum of opposition to coal trains here and listened to their demands and arguments.
Our congressman is on the House Transportation Committee and I think he should hire a bodyguard because they were especially angry at him. They want the Interstate Commerce Act repealed.
They had the following facts on trains which I thought I’d check out with you train experts.
The average unit train blocks a crossing for 20 minutes. I think the coal trains go through town at 40mph so I think this does not apply to us.
Diesel particulates from a GE or EMD engine are more toxic than coal dust.
50 trains a day are coming. That is only 2 per hour so I don’t think they would block the crossing very much. I don’t know if our single track line can handle 50 trains a day. Our line is BNSF Everett, WA - Vancouver BC.
Building overpasses or underpasses is a waste of taxpayer money. I wonder because if you have a very busy street I think it would pencil out.
If any of you are ship experts, they had the following facts on ships.
All empty ships are ballasted with oil so a major oil spill can happen if the ship collides or sinks.
The sound a ship makes underwater is many decibles above what is comfortable for Orcas which we have a large number which leaves them disorientated and in danger of drowning.
They also want a repeal of the Eminent Domain law.
BANANA ---- Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything
We have reached the point where you can assert anything in opposition to ??? and never have to provide documentation for your assertions. These people are -mostly- bananas.
What exactly is the controversy about? Is it related to the proposal for a coal export terminal in Seattle? Why is there suddenly opposition to coal trains?
Sounds like these folks may be the same bunch of NIMBY’s that made a total embarrassment of themselves at STB in the late nineties at Kent WA when BNSF re-opened Stampede pass. (and it appears that they are not any smarter, all emotion and hyperbole with little truth in the facts presented. )
Heard some blabbing on PBS about this…NIMBY’s claim high amounts of coal dust are bad…don’t realize most of it settles to the bottom of the cars and not fly off into the air. Notwithstanding, there is some flying into the air and a wetting down with water or over cover of something heavier should take care of that. Railroad lines usually have been in place for a long, long time and it is hard to close them or get rid of them. NIMBY’s don’t look at the alternative: hundreds of heavy, heavy coal trucks per hour tramping down the highway…more pollution from the tractors than from a 100 car coal train, more damage to the roads than a train on its own tracks, higher …hell, we’re rail enthusiasts here, we know the economics…
The Sierra club started this. They have a no coal export policy for the US West Coast. But there is a major coal export facility at Vancouver BC just across the border.
To stop coal exports they have to stop US trains from going up our line Everett, WA - Vancouver BC since our line intersects with the British Columbia owned line to the coal terminal.
There is currently about three coal trains per day each way coming from Hauser ID on the BNSF through Vancouver, WA (the Columbia River line so no Mountain pass). They tie up at the old Northern Pacific yard in Auburn WA then as traffic permits head through Seattle and Everett to Vancouver BC. On their return as empties they use the Everett - Spokane, WA, line via Stevens Pass. At Spokane they merge in with the line back to Hauser ID.
It’s a pretty nasty campaign. There are no coal train campaign signs everywhere.
I just got an e-mail from the Friends of BNSF and I agreed to go to the Environmental Impact Statement scoping meeting Nov. 5. Wish me luck.
What has changed since then is that Port of Morrow has moved ahead a few more notches, gaining more forward support from local agencies and media than any of the other proposals so far. Two companies have already signed on to build the barges.
With several Northwest political positions up for grabs in this election season, and citizens divided over this issue like any other, it’s no surprise that my son recently noticed three separate anti-coal-train billboards alongside BNSF’s main line just east of Spokane.
In reading about this, I would say that the primary opposition is against the sudden increase in coal train traffic needed to serve the proposed export facilities. Another layer of opposition in a larger context is the elimination of fossil fuel energy worldwide.
Here is a link expressing some of the sentiments:
From the link:
“Full Speed Ahead for Coal Train Opposition"
"The battle over exporting coal is a crossroads for the Pacific Northwest. Will the region stay its course toward clean energy, or become a global trafficking hub for the most dangerous fossil fuel?”
In recent threads on the diminishing coal traffic, many took solace in the belief that the export market would take up the slack as the domestic market was regulated out of existence. That hope raised the obvious question of whether the anti-coal opposition would be content to let coal mining continue if we sold it to China instead of burning it here. I think we now see the answer to that question.
Yes – the extremists would have us all heating our homes with buffalo chips, if they had their way. They are absolutist – beyond compromise and gradualism. It’s a waste of time trying to reason with them. They take encouragement from some of the politicians we elect – useful to remember on Election Day.
All I have to do is look around here at how a Proposed Mine for Frac and Glass Sand got Treated. Yes it got Approved when both the Federal and State Courts ruled that the Interstate Commerce Act applied. However the freaking Bananas that came out of the Woodwork to try and Stop it where Out of THIS WORLD. Lets see here they claimed they where going to ruin a State Park. The Mine is 5 Miles away from Starved Rock. Then they switched to No Local Jobs created. The Mine is Creating 200 Full Time Jobs with the local UNIONS so they made the Local Labor Unions Mad on that one.
Then they went well it will be a Huge Hole in the Ground that will be Dead afterwards. The Mine Owners went Nope we are going to make it into a Public Free Fishing area complete with Boat docks and Stock it with Fish as our gift to the local people. The Mine opens next year on a 1200 Acre area and has a depth of 300 Feet they can mine.
Thank you everyone for pointing out that the train opposition here in Washington has a campaign based on lies. Lies cause confusion and reduce trust and this is exactly what they want to do.
If Stevedore Services of America, the Longshore Union and the BNSF want to develop business they have to fight back which they are not doing. It sounds like the sand mine in Wisconsin had enough of a public relations campaign to win the battle. It’s simple to fight back, just tell the truth. The truth wins. It’s verifiable. And I think the person delivering the truth should be the CEOs and Union Presidents, together if that is possible.
Look at the Sierra’s club website. It has three visions, beyond coal, beyond oil, and beyond natural gas.
They have the audacity to think they can take away our planes, ships, trains, automobiles, electricity, and heat.
Oh, I wouldn’t say lies. But of fears, misconceptions, misinformation, and some ignorance. Some of them may actually believe what they are saying is true, and to an extent, there are some truth to what is said. It is hyped and shouted with authority so it can be construed as believable.
You know, I used to have a lot of admiration for the Sierra Club until they started trying to turn every wilderness area in this country into their own private preserve, or so it would seem to me. Sorry S-C people, but the national parks and related government owned areas are supported by us taxpaying plebeans, not environmental snobs. We’ve got the right to use 'em too, you know.
And stop yelling "oil is bad, coal is bad, gas is bad, nukes are bad, solar panels are eyesores and windmills kill birds’, at least until you’ve got some viable alternatives. Right now you’ve got none. Period.
I found out that they do use water for ballast. They have a law administered by the WA State Dept of Fisheries that they have to conduct ballasting operations 200 miles offshore.
All this from SSA the outfit that wants to build the Cherry Port facility. They had a forum. A BNSF engineer said that for many years his assignment was a train from Ravensdale in your area to the Westshore terminal that the current coal trains operate from. I thought that mine closed during my father’s time. He ran a coal and fuel supply business in Seattle during the 1930s. The business closed in the 1960s.