“Time to build a pipeline”
Amen and dittoes. Pipelines can run 24/7 at steady speed, the product being moved can be changed with minimum disruption of operations, once in place it operates for years with regular maintenance and upkeep, probably at far less cost than what would be required for a roadbed and the individual cars, let alone the daily diligence that must be maintained in scheduling and tracking assembled trains and their switching off at given points.
Use of tank cars and moving by rail is SO 1930’s level of technology. The Second World War led to the establishment of the “Big Inch” and “Little Big Inch” pipelines, which greatly expedited the movement of petroleum product from the oilfields to the refineries and on to the port of embarkation, where these products were sent out all over the world to supply our war machine and those of the allies. These pioneer pipelines have long been abandoned, but the lessons and technology survived, and have been key in establishing the safety and reliability of using this means of transport of a messy and sometimes unpredictable class of product.
These pioneer pipelines have long been abandoned
- - - - - - -
Not True.
Texas Eastern formed in 1947 with the purchase of two wartime-built pipelines, the Big Inch and the Little Big Inch, from the U.S. government. With numerous improvements and modifications over time, the pipelines are still in use and are a vital part of Spectra Energy. Today, the Texas Eastern Transmission system ranks fourth among the nation’s gas pipelines in system capacity.
http://www.spectraenergy.com/About-Us/History/Texas-Eastern/