Free Republic

Regulations that could force oil companies to use stronger rail cars to move crude likely will be ready in 2015, according to a schedule released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Oil companies have increasingly used rail cars to move crude, but recent disasters, including a derailment and massive explosions in North Dakota last month, have drawn attention to the cars’ vulnerabilities. New regulations that could force older tank cars to be upgraded or phased out are under development, but will not be proposed until Nov. 12 and will be subject to a public comment period until Jan. 12,...

The railway industry wants to “aggressively phase out” older model tank cars that have been implicated in several recent accidents, the head of CN Rail’s safety division told an industry forum Monday. But the consensus at the day-long workshop was that there’s no quick fix for a decades-old problem that has almost 80,000 sub-standard DOT-111 tank cars carrying flammable liquids on North American tracks. And whatever the solution, the cost eventually will be borne by consumers. Sam Berrada, director general of safety and occupational health services for CN, told an overflow crowd of industry types, regulators, lobbyists and local first...

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said he thinks President Obama will approve the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. In the wake of multiple crude-by-rail train accidents in North Dakota -- leaving railcars ablaze and nearby residents at risk --Hoeven said on "Platts Energy Week" that the U.S. needs more pipelines. The U.S. needs pipelines "not only to improve conditions in terms of rail, but trucks," Hoeven said on Sunday. "With the Keystone pipeline, we'd take 500 trucks a day off our roads in western North Dakota." "So clearly pipelines are a part of the solution. But also we have to do everything...

Officials in Canada said a derailed freight train carrying crude oil and propane continued to burn Wednesday morning, while they prepared to launch aerial surveillance and more than 100 residents remained evacuated from their homes. There were no deaths or injuries. “The biggest concern is the propane cars,” the fire chief of the nearby community of Plaster Rock, Tim Corbin, said Wednesday morning, according to CBC News. “That’s our biggest concern because if they happen to explode, we’re looking at major damage.” The derailment late Tuesday in a sparsely populated region of New Brunswick again raised concerns about the increasing...

The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 ended the federal government's financial support of many passenger rail routes. The federal subsidy for the operational costs for the Wolverine passenger rail service running from Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago, for example, has ended. The Michigan Legislature, however, included an extra $19.3 million in the budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year to replace the lost federal funds. This sum represents a tripling of the state subsidy required to cover Amtrak's operating costs compared to the previous year. Michigan taxpayers will provide a $98.11 subsidy per roundtrip passenger in fiscal 2014. Two other Amtrak lines,...

A Union Pacific train carrying 70 tanker cars of crude oil from Colorado rolled into the Port of Beaumont’s Orange County Terminal last week — the first to arrive at a new facility built for such shipments. Called a unit train because it carried a single cargo to one destination, it brought 43,000 barrels of oil from the Niobrara Shale in Colorado to the Jefferson Transload Railport for use by an area refinery.

SNIPPET: "A federal grand jury has issued an eight-count indictment against a central Arkansas man accused of damaging electric cooperative and other power facilities. Jason Woodring, 37, was indicted on charges relating to sabotage of high-voltage power lines and power stations earlier this year in several cities. Among them: a terrorist attack against a railroad carrier and destruction of energy facilities, including a 115,000-volt transmission line owned by First Electric Cooperative in Jacksonville. Woodring faces up to 20 years in prison on the energy facility destruction charges, and life in prison if convicted on the terrorism charge. According to an...

"...CBS New York, citing FDNY sources, is saying there are "several injuries." Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/metro-north-train-derails-in-the-bronx-2013-12#ixzz2mEOvVQNG ..."

PHILADELPHIA, PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Amtrak said it is investigating after a train headed from Philadelphia to New York ended up lost in suburban Pennsylvania. Officials said Amtrak Train 644 departed Philadelphia's 30th Street Station Tuesday night and accidentally ended up on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority tracks, KYW-TV, Philadelphia, reported Wednesday. The train traveled several miles on the wrong tracks before the mistake was noticed and it stopped at a station in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb of Philadelphia. Amtrak said the 130 passengers on the train were taken back to Philadelphia, where they boarded another train for New York....

Really, what could possibly go wrong? "U.S. to Train Libyan Military, Including Islamists," by Bill Gertz for the Washington Free Beacon, November 16 (thanks to Kenneth): Simi Valley, Calif. — The U.S. military is preparing to conduct military and special operations training for Libya’s military and the training will risk including Islamist terrorists among the trainees, according to the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Adm. William McRaven, the commander who helped lead the covert raid to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said in a brief interview Saturday that the counterterrorism training operation has not begun. “We’re...

Emergency crews battled a massive fire Saturday after a Canadian National tanker train carrying oil and gas derailed west of Edmonton, Alberta, overnight. No injuries have been reported so far. Canadian National spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin said 13 cars — four carrying petroleum crude oil and nine loaded with liquified petroleum gas — came off the tracks around 1 a.m. local time in the hamlet of Gainford, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Edmonton. The entire community of roughly 100 people was evacuated. Paquin says three cars containing gas were leaking and on fire. Local officials feared there could be an...

<p>The two workers, whose names weren't immediately released, died at the scene after they were hit by an eastbound train, sources close to the investigation said.</p>

Houston-based Rock River Resources will build a small refinery and facility for shipping crude by rail in Utah, providing new transportation and local refining for the growing oil production in the state, the company announced Tuesday. The $320 million project will be built in three stages, with the rail facilities coming on line first, followed by a microrefinery in Green River, Utah. The microrefinery will have a capacity of 10,000 barrels a day and will process local crudes and condensates into fuel oil, diesel and jet fuel. “The location where we are in Utah, there are not rail lines for...

assengers screamed "Stop! Stop!" seconds before their bus crashed through a crossing barrier and into a commuter train during morning rush hour in Canada's capital on Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 34. "He smoked the train," witness Mark Cogan said of the bus driver, who was among those killed. "He went through the guard rail and just hammered the train, and then it was just mayhem." It was not immediately clear what caused the bus to smash through the lowered barrier at a crossing in suburban Ottawa. The front of the double-decker bus was ripped away by the impact,...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who embezzled $320,000 from a California state agency was later hired by the state's High-Speed Rail Authority — and she says nobody asked about her background. The Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/141r1Z6 ) says Carey Moore spent two years in prison after pleading no contest to grand theft in 2007. Prosecutors say she embezzled from the Department of Child Support Services. In 2011, Moore was hired by the High-Speed Rail Authority. Her job included making travel plans for officials. Her state job application didn't ask whether she'd been convicted of a crime and Moore says nobody...

An ex-con opened fire on a train in New Jersey and wounded two passengers - and then himself - after becoming enraged when a stranger objected to him falling asleep on her shoulder, police said today. Tari Turpin, 34, pulled out a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol and started shooting aboard a PATH Train in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Sunday morning.

Another day, another crude oil rail project in Canada. U.S. Development Group, a Houston-based developer of rail logistics and terminal facilities, said this week it would work with a Gibson, a Canadian midstream company, to build a rail loading facility near Hardistry, Alberta. “USDG has pioneered the crude-by-rail concept in key markets across the U.S.,” Mike Day, USDG’s Vice President, said in a press release. “With the Hardisty Rail Terminal, we have expanded the platform to accommodate increasing Canadian production. Developed in partnership with Gibson, the Hardisty Rail Terminal will give Canadian oil producers flexibility to obtain the best value...

there's no reason to believe the Honolulu's rail project will do anything to improve traffic congestion. In fact, it's likely to divert resources from more-affordable solutions. "The one thing about these projects [is that] they are very inviting politically," says former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano. Along with Cliff Slater of Honolulutraffic.com and University of Hawaii's Roth, Cayetano has filed a federal lawsuit against the rail project that's held up construction. They claim the city misled the public about the total cost of the project and didn't deliver fully on a required review of alternative solutions to a rail line. Panos...

A train carrying highly flammable and corrosive materials derailed in north Louisiana on Sunday. Over 100 homes have been evacuated as a precaution, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, adding there were no fatalities or injuries and air monitors have not picked up anything to cause concern. According to a press release from Jindal's office, three cars were leaking as of late Sunday. One is leaking lubricant oil while a second is leaking Dodecanol, a tasteless, colorless alcohol that can cause mild skin irritation. The third, however, is carrying a highly corrosive substance called caustic soda, or lye. Two other cars containing...

Swiss television, citing local police, reports that 44 people have been injured, four of them seriously, in a head-on train collision in the west of the country.