Category Archives: Derailment

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Lac-Mégantic

Montreal Gazette: Lac-Mégantic, One Year Later

Repost from The Montreal Gazette
[Editor: The Montreal Gazette offers a special section to mark the anniversary of the catastrophic crude by rail explosion in Canada, including a variety of intensely probing and sobering stories.  The LEAST we can do is respectfully remember – for MORE, we must take action in our own communities.  – RS]

Lac Megantic

Names etched in granite and in their hearts

Visitors read a monument to Lac-Mégantic’s 47 train disaster victims outside the Ste-Agnès church in the town, Sunday, July , 2014, after a mass to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy. The mass was done as part of weekend activities to commemorate the accident.

The 12-foot slab of granite was ordered from a quarry in Asia, shortly after last summer’s disaster, and only after the families of the 47 dead in the tragedy had agreed: a monument should be erected.

Multimedia

Lac-Mégantic future plansINTERACTIVE: Lac-Mégantic before and after

See the proposed plans for Lac-Mégantic’s devastated former downtown and new commercial district…

LAC-MEGANTIC.: JULY 12, 2013-- A section of the train tracks near Lacourciere Street in Lac-MÈgantic, 216 kms east of Montreal, is pictured on Friday, July 12, 2013. There is speculation regarding the condition of the tracks the ill-fated train route ran along before the Saturday, July 6 train derailment disaster. (Justin Tang / THE GAZETTE) ORG XMIT: 47298WATCH: Our reporters’ vivid memories

Watch videos of a few of our reporters and photographers recounting some of the vivid memories they …

Lac-MéganticGALLERY: Lac-Mégantic one year later

Much has changed in Lac-Mégantic since last year’s tragedy, yet much has stayed the same. Here …

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Oil spill

Latest Derailment: Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada

Repost from The Wall Street Journal

Two Oil-Tank Cars on Canadian National Train Derail in Rural Alberta

No Injuries or Fire Reported
By David George-Cosh  |  July 4, 2014

Two crude-carrying cars on a train operated by Canadian National Railway Ltd. derailed in central Alberta early Friday, according to the railway company and a local official. There were no reports of injuries or fire.

The 79-car train was carrying oil and forestry products when it derailed near Whitecourt, Alberta, about 125 miles northwest of Edmonton, capital of the oil-rich province, according to a spokesman with Canada’s Transportation Safety Board.

A CN spokeswoman said three other cars also left the tracks but contained paper and forest products.

The train, which originated in Whitecourt, was en route to a terminal in Edmonton when the cars left the track, according to Whitecourt fire chief Brian Wynn. Mr. Wynn said the train was carrying 81 cars.

The CN spokeswoman, Emily Hamer, said the company had contained “slight seepage” from a valve on one tank car but that both oil-carrying cars that derailed remained intact. She said the cause of the accident was being investigated, and that both derailed tank cars were currently on their side.

The incident comes just two days before the one-year anniversary of a deadly train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in which a train carrying 72 cars of crude from the Bakken Shale slammed into the town’s downtown, killing 47 people.

Since then, other crude-by-rail derailments have occurred in Alabama, North Dakota, Lynchburg, Va., and elsewhere in Canada. Those occurred even as U.S. and Canadian regulators moved to toughen safety standards amid growing transport of oil by rail.

The TSB said it had dispatched an investigator to the site.

The train was headed southbound on a secondary main line where trains typically travel at slower speeds, Mr. Wynn said.

Bakken Crude, Derailment, Massive increase in crude-by-rail

Texas Public Radio: Derailments Spike Along With Oil Shipments

Repost from Texas Public Radio
[Editor: This seems to be an early posting on Texas Public Radio, with actual interview audio to follow.  I will return to add the audio when it is posted.  – RS]

The Source: Derailments Spike Along With Oil Shipments

By Paul Flahive, July 1, 2014
Link to original image: http://bit.ly/1lvK3ci Credit Flickr user Paul Sullivan / cc

Transporting crude oil from areas booming with the hydraulic fracturing revolution relies heavily on railroads. Busier railroads means more derailments and more derailments with trains loaded with old cars filled with oil means more tragedies.

Chris Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, noted the dramatic rise in flammables being transported by rail the in a letter to U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley while noting a number of specific oil derailments:

  • March 27, 2013, derailment of a Canadian Pacific train involving 14 tank cars of Western Canadian crude oil in Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, that released 15,000 gallons of product.
  • January 31, 2014, 11 tank cars of a Canadian National (CN) train transporting North Alberta crude oil in New Augusta, Mississippi, derailed, releasing 50,000 gallons of product.
  • February 13, 2014, 19 tank 2 cars of a Norfolk Southern train carrying Western Canadian heavy crude oil derailed in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, releasing 4,300 gallons of product.
  • January 7, 2014, 5 tank cars of a CN train carrying Western Canadian (Manitoba/Saskatchewan) crude oil derailed in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, releasing 60,000 gallons of product.

As we enter July, the property damage by oil on rail derailments has already surpassed all of last year and these derailments have affected every region of the country according to a Politico investigation.

As these trains travel through our communities, sometimes without the knowledge of first responders, are we safe? Should we have more information and the ability to keep these trains outside densely populated areas? Are there alternatives, and how does the Keystone XL pipeline figure in?

Guests:

  • Kathryne Wolfe, Politico’s deputy transportation editor
  • Tom “Smitty” Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, a consumer and citizen advocacy group

*This is the second segment in the July 1 edition of The Source, which airs at 3 p.m. on KSTX 89.1 FM.  Audio from this segment will be posted by 5:30 p.m.

Crude By Rail, Derailment, DOT-111

Latest oil train derailment – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Repost from AM680 CJOB – Winnipeg, CA

Derailment In Winnipeg Raises Concerns About Rail Safety

CJOB Team Coverage / June 20, 2014
CN crews work to get a crude oil tanker car back on the tracks at Symington Yards. (picture courtesy of Global News)

It took all day Friday for crews to clean up after an early morning train derailment at the Symington rail yard in Winnipeg.

There were no injuries or leaks after three cars carrying crude oil jumped the tracks and remained upright.

Saint Boniface councillor Dan Vandal tells Global news he still has concerns about rail safety within the city limits.

“We’re a city of railroads,  We have major rail tracks running through the centre of our city,  right next to where people live.”

The cause of the derailment is still being investigated. CN Rail says two of the cars were DOT-111 tankers, the same type of cars involved in the Lac-Mégantic train derailment and explosion nearly a year ago that resulted in the deaths of 47 people.