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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 2/23:
 

Why bitumen isn’t necessarily safer than Bakken

 

The chain reaction fireballs that attended the Feb. 16, 2015 derailment of a CSX unit oil train in populated West Virginia probably blinded observers to the significance of the concurrent derailment and explosions of a CN oil train in a remote and uninhabited area of northern Ontario. Most reports treated the two events as equals, given that both trains consisted of recently manufactured CPC-1232 tank cars loaded with crude oil.

 

CN’s Ontario conflagration is the more disturbing of the two mishaps: The railroad reported that its train was not carrying the extra-light Bakken crude that, in a series of high-energy derailments since 2013, has proved to be explosive. To the contrary, the CN train was laden with bitumen, the extra-heavy tarry substance extracted from Alberta’s oil sands. Bitumen, in its natural highly viscous form, is considered to be essentially inflammable by petrochemical experts and is rarely considered in safety evaluations of crude by rail.

 

So why did the bitumen ignite and explode in Ontario’s -40ºC (-40ºF) weather? The reason, based on research consulted by Railway Age, is that the diluent added to make bitumen flow into and out of tank cars makes the blended lading quite volatile.

 

Continue here.

 

[CNJRoss]

San Francisco Chronicle, 2/22:

Editorial:

 

Government, industry needs to get rid of exploding oil tank cars

Photo: Steven Wayne Rotsch / Associated Press

 

Absent new regulations, U.S. transportation experts predict more oil train wrecks like this one, which occurred Feb. 17 in Mount Carbon, W.Va.

 

When a train carrying crude oil derailed last week in West Virginia, sending up a fireball that burned for five days, communities on rail lines in California noted that the accident involved the newer — and it was hoped safer — CPC-1232 model tank cars. Some 3 million gallons of Bakken crude spilled from 26 cracked cars into a Kanawha River tributary, endangering water supplies and forcing the evacuation of two towns. The smoldering crude burned a home, but thankfully no one was killed.

 

Two days before the West Virginia train wreck, a train pulling CPC-1232 tank cars derailed and caught fire in Ontario, Canada. There was a similar accident last year in Lynchburg, Va.

 

Clearly, it will take tank car safety upgrades more extensive than those adopted voluntarily by the rail industry four years ago to assure the public safety and protect the environment of communities crossed by rail lines. Yet authorities have dithered.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Reuters, 2/23:

 

Column

Oil-by-rail shipments are playing Russian roulette: Kemp

(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

 

By John Kemp

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Train derailments involving crude oil and ethanol in the United States will cost more than $18 billion over the next 20 years, according to an assessment by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 

SNIP

 

Shippers and rail companies are not insured against the full liability of the consequences of incidents involving hazardous materials," USDOT warns. "Rail carriers and shippers may not bear the entire cost of making whole those affected when an incident ... occurs."

 

Moreover, risks and liabilities are not correctly aligned. USDOT explains: "Shippers, although responsible for packaging the material, and buying or leasing the tank cars in which these products are shipped, do not generally bear any liability for an incident once a rail carrier has accepted shipment, and rail carriers cannot refuse shipments."

 

Railroad rates cannot always be adjusted to reflect increased risks because they are regulated by the Surface Transportation Board.

 

Read more here.