[Magdalen] Derailment, Please Pray

[Roger Stokes]

On 13/05/2015 22:19, Jim Guthrie wrote:

> Despite that, it should be noted that there have been far fewer Bakken 
> oil derailments/explosions/leaks than incidents with pipelines or 
> oil/gasoline delivery trucks – and several people have been killed. No 
> one has lost a life due to oil trains per se. 

I think that is probably true of transport of most things, including 
people.  Rail accidents (like those involving commercial passenger 
aircraft) make the headlines because of the number killed and/or the 
disruption caised at a single event.  The cumulative deaths and 
disruption caused by road accidents is much higher, as is the rate per 
10,000 miles travelled.

> Lac Megantic was an outlier, caused by rail crews who reached their 
> legal hours of service limit and failed to secure a train when the 
> “outlawed.: And the company that operated that train was run by Ayn 
> Rand aficionados and imparting an anti-regulation, ignore the rule 
> “corporate culture.” They read Atlas Shrugged and thought knew how to 
> run a railroad. 

Safety regulations are there for a reason - to minimise the risk of an 
accident.  Cut corners to save yourself a bit of time and you may well 
get away with it the first several times.  Sooner or later, however, 
something you are relying on will fail.

> Finally, Keystone XL vs BNSF is really Koch Bros vs. Warren Buffet. 
> Stopping Keystone does not stop tar sands oil – only rerouting it so 
> Buffet sees the transportation profit. Gotta love the ignorance of the 
> activists on that score.

I must admit when I saw the route of the proposed XL pipeline and that 
of the existing pipeline I wondered why they were putting in the 
diversion.  If the existing pipeline is getting towards the end of its 
life then dig a parallel trench to the existing one, put in the new line 
and switch the flow.  The route of the existing line will not be 
reinstated to what it was, and there will almost certainly be some 
contamination of the soil.

Roger