Category Archives: Rail routing

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Hazmat notification, Rail routing, Tank car design

What it’s like to live 50 feet from the oil-train tracks

Repost from WAVY-TV, Portsmouth, VA
[Editor: An excellent news video report.  Apologies for the commercial ad.  – RS]

The risk rolling on Hampton Roads rails

By Chris Horne, November 24, 2014


NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – The mother of 21-month-old Lily Murphy is concerned about her daughter’s safety whenever she plays in their back yard. That’s because CSX trains pass about fifty feet from their back fence, as often as five times a week.

“Nothing like that ever even crossed my mind that it could be carrying hazardous, dangerous material so it’s good that you brought that to light,” said mother Christina Murphy.

The trains haul Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to Yorktown. It was a Bakken train derailment that caused a fatal inferno last year in Lac Megantic, Quebec, when nearly fifty people were killed in the explosion and fire. Another Bakken train derailed in Lynchburg last April and caused a major fire along the James River — that train was headed for Yorktown.

Photos: Train catches fire, derails in Lynchburg

Pat Calvert is a river keeper for the James River Association. His Lynchburg office is within a block of where the Lynchburg derailment occurred.

“Today, that same risk that existed on April 30, over six months later, is right here along the James River,” Calvert said. “That’s our concern: that we need to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Experts say Bakken is more flammable than other types of crude oil.

“A lot of people think about the Beverly Hillbillies and the bubbling crude oil, it’s not that kind of crude oil,” said Gregory Britt, director of the Technological Hazards Division of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. “It’s probably a lot closer to gasoline, as far as the flammability.”

CSX filed paperwork with the Commonwealth detailing the shipments. The railroad confirmed to 10 On Your Side it runs two to five Bakken oil trains a week across Virginia. Each train is about a hundred cars in length, with a total payload of about three million gallons of oil.

Document: Paperwork filed by CSX

The route includes Richmond and eventually passes through Williamsburg, Newport News and York County.

“It’s highly volatile, with a low flash point, and it’s going right through highly populated areas,” Calvert said. “People don’t realize this is happening every day.”

What makes the shipments even more dangerous is the design of many of the older tank cars that haul it. Federal regulators, railroads and rail car makers agree the older cars, known as legacy DOT 111s, need safety upgrades. This specific aspect of rail transportation is regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). It’s up to PHMSA to create the rules for the modifications. PHMSA is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Document: PHMSA’s proposed rule for flammable trains

“My industry likes the certainty of rule-making and has urged the Department of Transportation to move quickly on issuing a final rule,” said Tom Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, the trade association that represents firms that make and service railroad tank cars.

CSX supports the safety modifications as well.

“The railroad industry supports to improve the tank car standards, to make sure that we’re moving the safest cars that we possibly can,” said CSX vice president Bryan Rhode, whose region includes Virginia.

PHMSA told WAVY News in an email that it is currently evaluating nearly 4,000 comments regarding safety upgrades for the older tank cars. A spokesman said the agency has a target date of March 31, 2015 to determine what upgrades are needed and make them mandatory.

Related link: Public comments regarding safety upgrades

Among several options, PHMSA is considering an extra jacket surrounding the cars to create a double wall, and protective guards on the top, ends and bottom. The measures would help prevent against ruptures and oil spillage.

The Quebec derailment involved about 1.3 million gallons of Bakken crude oil; the Lynchburg train leaked about 29,000 gallons.

“Lynchburg contributed to the larger discussion, nationally, about how we enhance safety for these types of trains,” Rhode said of CSX.

According to data from the US Department of Transportation, the amount of Bakken crude transported by rail has soared in recent years. In 2008, railroads hauled about 9,500 carloads. By 2013, the amount was 415,000 carloads, a 43-fold increase.

VDEM holds ongoing training for first responders to handle a potential incident involving Bakken crude.

“If there’s an event dealing with a spill, they should be able to dam it, dike it, they should be able to hold it in place for further assistance,” said Britt, who runs the training at key locations, including the York County safety services complex on Back Creek Road. “Then specialists can come in and environmental companies can clean it up.”

Christina Murphy hopes that training never has to be utilized, as she enjoys time in her yard with Lily in Newport News.

“I guess we should think about what we would do here, if something like that would happen, that’s pretty scary,” she said.

Bakken Crude, Rail routing, Schools

Potentially explosive trains rolling past 55 schools along a 60 mile stretch in NY and NJ

Repost from WABC TV7 Eyewitness News, New York, NY
[Editor: Trains actually pass right UNDER one school.  A shocking video and excellent investigative reporting.  Someone really should research and list the schools (and other vital structures) along the Union Pacific tracks proposed as the route for Valero Benicia crude-by-rail.
UPDATE, Nov. 1, 2014 – Note previous NRDC study on this issue in California, especially p. 3 of It Could Happen Here, The Exploding Threat of Crude by Rail in California, which lists the number of schools.  More detailed mapping is available on the NRDC’s Risk Zone Maps.  – RS] 

The Investigators: Potentially explosive trains rolling through New York, New Jersey neighborhoods

By Jim Hoffer, October 31, 2014

NEW YORK (WABC) — They are mile-long trains filled with explosive crude oil that the government says are unsafe, yet more and more of them are rolling through neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.

In an exclusive investigation in which the Eyewitness News Investigators tracked the movements of these trains, we’ve determined that several times a day, they pass right by dozens of schools filled with students.

In some towns, they are called bomb trains: tanker cars filled with millions of gallons of crude oil.

“If you live in community near rail lines, I guarantee you, you know about bomb trains,” said Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group RiverKeeper.

Ten months ago in North Dakota, a fireball from a crude oil train derailment forced the town of 1,400 to evacuate. Then, last April, there were more evacuations in Lynchburg, Virginia, after a CSX oil train derailed there.

Last year, a derailment in a small Canadian town killed 47 people, the devastation made worse because the old rail cars are prone to rupture in a crash.

Just months ago, the federal government told rail shippers they have two years to phase out these older tankers. RiverKeeper thinks the ban should be immediate.

“You have to have better rail cars, and soon,” Gallay said. “And until you do, you shouldn’t be putting communities at risk.”

In the last two years, there’s been a 400 percent increase in crude oil trains rolling down along the Hudson River and into New Jersey. Our investigation has found that along a 60-mile stretch of the rail line from Newburgh to Newark, there are at least 55 schools located within 1,500 feet of the tracks.

Schools_Bomb-Trains_NY-NJ_WABC-New-York_550Every day, three to four trains filled with millions of gallons of crude from the mid-west roll by these schools.

“It’s totally unacceptable,” mom Sarah McTasney said.

McTasney, of West Nyack, worries that for at least the next two years, these tanker cars that the government says are defective will continue rolling by near her daughter’s school.

“It’s putting our communities at risk,” she said. “And when talking about schools, you’re talking about high concentrations of children.”

A spokesman for CSX Railroad says they’ve put in place numerous safety measures, including increased track inspections, lowering the speeds of some of their trains and installing monitors to detect track defects. The spokesman adds that CSX does not own the railcars but are responsible for moving them safely. And as for safety, our investigation found one school along the CSX rail line that stood out more than the rest.

At West Point Military Academy, long lines of tanker cars filled with highly flammable crude go right under the campus through a tunnel below one of the academy’s main buildings.

“We have evidence from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups specifically looking at rail targets,” rail security expert Fred Millar said.

CSX says it has worked closely with first-responders in both New York and New Jersey and has advocated for higher design standards for cars.

Here is the list of all the schools located within 1,500 feet of CSX rail line from Newburgh to Newark.

NEW JERSEY
Hawkins Street Elementary- Newark, NJ – 1300 ft
Ethical Community Charter School- Jersey City- 600 ft
Elementary School 2 – Jersey City – 1500 ft
St. Anne’s School – Jersey City – 1500 ft
North Bergen Vocational School – North Bergen, NJ – 500 ft
McKinley School – North Bergen, NJ – 800 ft
St. Brigid’s School – North Bergen, NJ – 1100 ft
Franklin Elementary School – North Bergen, NJ -1100 ft
Robert Fulton School – North Bergen, NJ – 1100 ft
Franklin Elementary School #3 – North Bergen, NJ – 1500 ft
High Tech High School – North Bergen, NJ – 1000 ft
Grant Elementary – Ridgefield Park,NJ – 1400 ft
Han Al High School – Ridgefield Park, NJ – 1400 ft
Lincoln Elementary – Ridgefield Park, NJ – 1300 ft
E Roy Rixby Elementary – Bogota, NJ – 1400 ft
Trinity Lutheran School – Bogota, NJ – 1000 ft
St. Joseph School – Bogota, NJ – 1300 ft
Bogart Memorial School – Bogota, NJ – 400 ft
Bogota Jr. Sr. High – Bogota, NJ – 1200 ft
Teaneck Community Charter School – Teaneck, NJ – 130 ft
Teaneck High School – Teaneck, NJ – 1200 ft
Benjamin Franklin M.S. – Teaneck, NJ – 1200 ft
Yeshiva Gedolah – Teaneck, NJ – 100 ft
Torah Academy – Teaneck, NJ – 250 ft
Ma’ayanot Yeshiva H.S. – Teaneck, NJ – 150 ft
Roy W. Brown M.S. – Bergenfield, NJ – 300 ft
Yeshivat He’Atid – Bergenfield, NJ – 600 ft
Franklin Elementary School – Bergenfield, NJ – 1300 ft
Transfiguration Academy – Bergenfield, NJ – 800 ft
Dumont High School – Dumont, NJ – 500 ft
Newbury Academy – Dumont, NJ – 900 ft
Bergen Center for Child Development – Haworth, NJ – 900 ft
Haworth Public School – Haworth, NJ – 900 ft
Harrington Park Public School – Harrington Park, NJ- 1400 ft
The Goddard School – Norwood, NJ – 100 ft
Thomas Jefferson Elementary – Northvale, NJ – 300 ft

NEW YORK
Dominican College – Orangeburg, NY – 200 ft
Tappan high School – Orangeburg, NY – 1100 ft
St. Dominic’s School – Blauvelt, NY – 1100 ft
St. Catherine’s School – Orangeburg, NY – 1000 ft
Cottage Lane Elementary – Blauvelt, NY – 1300 ft
St. Paul’s School – Valley Cottage, NY – 200 ft
Congers Elementary School – Congers, NY – 200 ft
Haverstraw M.S. – Haverstraw, NY – 1300 ft
Gerald F. Neary Elementary – Haverstraw, NY – 1000 ft
North Rockland Control School District – West Haverstraw, NY – 1300 ft
West Haverstraw Elementary – West Haverstraw, NY – 800 ft
West Point Military Academy – Highland Falls, NY – 0 ft
Cornwall on Hudson Elementary – Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY – 1300 ft
Cornwall Central School District – Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY – 1200 ft
Liberty Street School – Newburgh, NY – 1200 ft
St. Patrick’s – Newburgh, NY – 900 ft
Grand Street Public School – Newburgh, NY – 1000 ft
Newburgh Jabemacle Elementary School – Newburgh, NY – 1200 ft
Mount St. Mary College – Newburgh, NY – 1500 ft.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Public Utilities Commission, Derailment, Draft EIR, Rail routing, Risk Assessment, Tank car design, Valero Crude By Rail

Vallejo Times-Herald: State officials say Benicia underestimated oil train risks

Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald

State officials say Benicia underestimated oil train risks

Officials urge city to redo Valero refinery project safety analysis
By Tony Burchyns, 09/25/2014

State officials say Benicia has underestimated the risks of running oil trains through Roseville and other parts of Northern California to the Valero refinery.

In letter to the city last week, officials from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response and the Public Utilities Commission called on the city to redo its safety analysis before allowing the refinery to receive two 50-car oil trains a day.

The letter follows similar critical comments from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the cities of Davis and Sacramento and the University of California at Davis. Environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and San Francisco Baykeeper also have sent letters to Benicia expressing concerns about the project.

The state officials’ letter said that total potential derailments attributable to the plan, including those outside California, should be considered in the risk study. Officials also said that the city’s draft environmental impact report paid insufficient attention to train accidents other than derailments.

“The analyses of environmental impacts, including the risk and consequences of derailments, should not be limited to the section of track between Roseville and Benicia, and track at the refinery itself,” officials wrote. “The analyses should also cover the many miles of track, the distance of which will vary depending on entry point into the state, between the state border and Roseville.”

Valero’s project description identifies North America, Texas and other locations as possible sources of crude, but direct routes through Southern California and other areas of the state and country are not analyzed.

City officials have said their analysis was limited to the Union Pacific line between Benicia and Roseville because the other rail routes are unknown or haven’t been disclosed.

The letter also criticized the city’s finding that the risk of train spills of more than 100 gallons between Rosville to Benicia would be once in 111 years. Critics have said the analysis is flawed because it relies on rail safety data that predates the nation’s crude-by-rail boom.

The letter asserts that the city’s derailment and accident rate calculations are problematic and the legal enforceability of Valero’s commitment to use tank cars that meet that highest safety standards is unclear.

Benicia has declined to comment thus far on the numerous letters received during the report’s public comment period that ended Sept. 15. However, the city plans to respond to the comments before the project’s next public hearing, which has yet to be set.

Crude By Rail, Rail routing

Crowdsourced train-spotting in New York: The case of the disappearing crude-oil tank cars

Repost from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
[Editor: …with apologies for auto-loading video.  – RS]

The case of the disappearing crude-oil tank cars

Steve Orr, September 4, 2014

Trains carrying crude oil pass regularly through the Rochester area these days. But which of two routes through Monroe County is CSX Transportation using?

Readers helped us answer that question, and in the process, revealed something of a mystery about our oil-train traffic.

The traffic is pretty much one way.

Oil trains are big news these days. The volume of crude oil being transported by rail has skyrocketed, and there’s particular concern about the crude that’s being hauled every day across upstate New York. That oil, which originates in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and environs, is much more volatile than other crude and hence more dangerous in the event of a derailment or other accident. There have been several fiery incidents involving Bakken oil trains, including one last year in Quebec, Canada that claimed 47 lives.

Between 20 and 35 oil trains travel across upstate each week, passing through Monroe County on their way to Albany, CSX reported to New York state not long ago.


As we in turn reported wrote in July, there’s evidence that CSX prefers to send oil trains on a route through the suburbs south of Rochester versus the one that passes through the heart of the city. The railroad itself seemed to indicate as much on a map in its report to the state, and a Rochester fire officer said he’d been told the same. But a Henrietta fire chief said something different, and the railroad itself wouldn’t provide us verification when we asked.

So we turned to crowdsourcing – asking readers to help by telling us where and when they observed oil trains moving through the county. In the ensuing weeks, we received about 40 reports of unique oil-train movements through Monroe County.

The resulting data are unscientific, to be sure and probably don’t reflect the full picture. For instance, no one reported seeing an oil train earlier than 7:15 am or later than 10:30 pm. But that’s probably because most prospective witnesses are at home during those hours.

Still, our reader reports were heavily skewed toward the suburban route known as the West Shore line. Seventy-four percent of the sightings of oil trains took place on the West Shore, with the other 26 percent in the more urban freight corridor, known as the Main Line.

That fits with what we’d heard: Oil trains are routed onto the West Shore when that track is available. If it’s not, they use the Main Line. (That choice also makes some sense from a risk assessment standpoint; my calculations showed population density is twice as high along the Main Line as the West Shore.)

But our crowdsourcing reports found something else interesting – 86 percent of the oil trains were headed east when our witnesses saw them. The balance were headed west.

Why? Well, consider this: Inferring from the trains-per-county data that CSX included in its report to the state, most of the oil that crosses upstate continues south from Albany via rail, undoubtedly heading for refineries in the Philadelphia-New Jersey area or elsewhere in the East.

But 15 to 25 percent of the trains terminate their runs in Albany, the CSX data show. Presumably, they’re taking advantage of the newly thriving (though controversial) business of floating crude oil in barge down the Hudson River and on to the refineries.

That coincides quite nicely with our readers’ reports that only about 15 percent of the trains they saw were westbound, doesn’t it?

So maybe that’s the deal: Trains that dump their volatile cargoes in Albany are hightailing it back to the Northern Plains to pick up more crude. But the tanker cars that travel south from Albany to unload their oil — if they’re returning to the Bakken for a refill, maybe they’re going a more roundabout way.

Mystery solved?