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Trains exclusive: Burkhardt says MM&A to return to Lac-Mégantic soon
Burkhardt was abused by no one other than himself when given the opportunity for a public soapbox. Publicly placing blame on his own employee employee before the facts were in, or even before the embers died out was irresponsibly juvenile. Shooting from the hip, once again, this “too soon - too late” is pure jive , which is more about doing an end run around acting responsibly…more of this “I was too busy to be there” baloney.
“The surprizing behavior of the commodity” should not surprze anyone. Crude oil is not particularly flammable, but, given enough heat (like that produced in a high energy crash involving thousands of tons of rail equipment) it will combust. And it will catch fire if other things nearby are on fire and provide enough heat. I am betting that no changes will be made to the rules for handling crude.
I agree with Robert Tysz above. I don’t know what Mr Berkhardt expected, especially after his own mishandling of the aftermath of the wreck, which was itself " poor to awful".
“MR JOHN SUTHERLAND said:
And what may be a real wake-up call for the rail industry is not their operating practices but the surprising behaviour of the commodity. It may be determined that the crude should have been classified in a different category of hazardous goods, with appropriate restrictions on car types and handling. Lac-Megantic has paid a terrible price, but just possibly the lessons learned will save another town in the future. It is the unfortunate reality that most safety improvements are “written in blood”.”
Who sets the standards for the classification and handling of hazardous materials? Last time I checked, government is responsible for this, not the railroad. However it is the shipper’s responsibility to follow those standards when loading and labeling the material in question. So far, nobody is questioning the shipper about what exactly was loaded. Crude oil by itself doesn’t explode. Something else caused the explosion. Of course, tank cars breaking open and adding fuel to the fire doesn’t help. This tells us the design and manufacture of tank cars needs to be improved. Again, not the railroad’s responsibility, but the tank car manufacturers, with safety standards again set by government. What most people can’t seem to grasp is there are certain things government is SUPPOSED TO DO but are willing to give government a free pass because the same government is the one handing out the free stuff.
About the only thing I would hang on the railroad is one man crews and parking hazardous materials trains unattended in unsafe locations with brakes that do not apply themselves automatically if something should go wrong such as tampering. We should not require regulations for this, but apparently we do as common sense seems to be in very short supply these days.
This was former CP track, not CN track.
Mr. Guse’s comments are quite thoughtful and right on the mark. The irony of this situation is that we seem to be dividing ownership and management of the railroads into the haves and the have-nots. Would this have happened if CN still ran the line? Too bad the people of the Lac-Mégantic are paying the difference in cost of properly running the oil train —with their property and their lives.
This accident would not have occurred if MM&A had not followed the unfortunately standard railroad practice of having as few employees on site as possible.
Having a qualified person on site after the fire department had been on the train would have prevented the accident.
I am sure the residents of Lac-Mégantic would say the same thing.
The more comments Burkhardt makes, the more I understand the circumstances that led to this disaster.
This was a real disaster for everyone. Burkhardt has had a great career with C&NW, making tthe Wisconsin Central a successful operation and then saving these lines in New England. Having been an operating officer, I feel there is more to know. Following FRA rules as to setting brakes on the train would have prevented its movement unless the release was deliberate sabotage.
Some good points raised following my earlier post. Indeed it is the shipper who is responsible for classifying the contents rather than the railroad. But a lot of folks, including the experts, are more than a little puzzled by how the fire became an inferno so quickly. The TSB has taken samples of the contents for analysis because of that. There are many grades of crude oil and perhaps it will be found to be a mistake to lump them all in the same class. Anyway, we can rely on the TSB report, when it is finally issued, to be thorough and provide answers to many of the questions that we all have. Take a look at their website sometime when you have an hour or two to spare and you will see how meticulously detailed their reports are.
I partly agree with Mr. Webb, but for a very different reason. If they had more railway employees, such as a two man crew, the accident would not have happened. And it is not because the two man crew is safer, but because the railway would already have ceased operation and been abandoned. Whether that would have been a good thing makes a good subject for an ethical debate.
The MM&A or its bankrupt predecessor have been struggling financially for years. The recent oil trains were expected to provide some much needed funds to start catching up with long deferred maintenance.
And what may be a real wake-up call for the rail industry is not their operating practices but the surprising behaviour of the commodity. It may be determined that the crude should have been classified in a different category of hazardous goods, with appropriate restrictions on car types and handling. Lac-Megantic has paid a terrible price, but just possibly the lessons learned will save another town in the future. It is the unfortunate reality that most safety improvements are “written in blood”.
These comments by Burkhardt, residents “quite interested in abusing me”, “I made the trip too early rather than too late (…) but I was still subject to a lot of abuse for not being there earlier.” are making a bad situation much, much, worse.
This was a horrific disaster. But it’s also embarrassing for an industry that appears to have been shown up for having a callous disregard for safety. I sincerely hope that attitudes are changing, even if Ed keeps digging deeper.
Oh, Eddie…poor baby. What did you expect when your company incinerated half a town…?
It just gets worse and worse with Berkhardt.
Could someone please gag Mr. Burkhardt? Even though there are some legitimate issues being raised in the railroad’s defense (notably the volatility of the oil product in the tank cars), most outside observers will see this as a railroad screwup. Far better for the railroad management to appear totally contrite, say they are investigating everything, will be revising policies for parking loaded trains, etc.
Not to be mean, but really, after decimating the middle of a small town and unleashing an environmental disaster, nobody wants to hear anyone going on about mistakes made by an individual crew member, oil company, or anyone else. They want the mess cleaned up and compensation for their losses. Focus on that and try to earn good will back. The lawyers will handle the fault finding later on.
As for the community outrage, no mystery there. Between the ham fisted public announcements and failure to pay for cleanup services in a timely fashion, this has been a classic instance of poor crisis management. A far cry from the Tylenol incident years ago where the drug company initiated a full recall of their best product, implemented major security changes, and took the lead in fixing things.
I think Mr. Burkhardt needs to heed this advice. Before you open your mouth again run it past your lawyers. It seams that after a month has past since this happened he is still not putting Lac-Mégantic in proper perspective. Mr. Burkhardt seems to come across more concerned with revenue and his railroad, as well as hanging this all on the train engineer, and not concerned with the loss of life and property. I hope that MMA continues to operate but is able to cover the cost to the town as requested.
Everyone needs to wait until the final report comes out. They need to examine what was in each of the tank cars and issue a full STB / FRA report on everything that contributed to the incident.
Here is a way to prevent Burkhardt from feeling sorry for himself-- put him and the rest of the excutive personnel in jail where they belong.