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Valero to buy 2,000 tank cars to move crude oil
Great investment, in support of transporting oil by Rail. It is safe and affordable. While we still need pipelines, the Railroads have been able to respond, and respond quickly to this demand for service.
toronto globe & mail had a very cogent artcle on rail vs. pipeline recently. i read it via a link in steve mcqueen’s ‘froth’ newsletter.
What AAR car code will Valero use for the tanks?
Tank car trains provide flexibilty of both destination and source, this beats a pipeline which is a fixed link between the gathering lines in a field,or fields, and a fixed destination. It is a cheaper way to move oil than by rail, but definitely lacks the flexibility that rail offers.
During the WWII there were solid tains on oil and refined products that moved from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast b/c of the German U-boats were sinking the tankers (ships).
I hope the train crews handling train loeads of oil are trained as to how to deal with the slosh/surge factor when braking.
This would a good alternative to the Keystone XL pipeline. At least there won’t be such a huge risk of pollution of ground water that The Keystone pipeline poses.