I wrote that and I believe it. Railroads are massive enterprises with mechanical, human, and natural forces all at work in concert.
Nothing mechanical is immune to wear, fatigue and failure.
Nothing human is immune to fatigue, poor judgement and mistakes.
Nothing natural is perfectly predictable, consistent or controllable.
When you combine those three facts the result is inevitable, if you move oil by the millions of barrels as the US rail network has been doing. Failure of a human or mechanical component is simply inevitable. The cause of failure can be anything, in Megantic it was fatigued mechanical parts working in concert with human elements that made poor decisions. But it can be something so simple as an extra-cold day in January that pulls a ribbon weld apart. The idea of a derailment free world in which CBR is transported safely 100% of the time is nothing more than a dream.
I don't think accidents can't be minimized, but society puts a $ before pretty much everything else. Can we dramatically reduce the likely hood of an accident involving CBR? Sure, but at what cost? We've tried stronger tanks, they help in the low speed accidents, but if you accordion a train at 60 they crack just like the older cars. So, we can mix the safer cars with reduced speeds. BNSF's last big mistake was at about 30 when they picked a switch, still got a big boom. So, that leaves your standard railroad speeds of 25 and 10. Hard time believing a 5mph difference is gonna do it. Slow everything to 10, including all on coming trains, only the CPC tanks, inspect the line between every train. Pretty soon that $52 barrel of oil costs you $50, $60, $70 to ship it cross country. Which makes Saudi/Brent/Russian oil cheaper when shipped half way round the world.
Oil train derailments are as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning. Could most be prevented? Yes, but the economic justifications we use as a society put the emphasis on lower fuel prices, not the absolute safety of transport. When you look at the numbers I posted a while back, you can draw many conclusions, but I'm still comfortable knowing the trains roll by in the night, less than 1500' away.
Nothing mechanical is immune to wear, fatigue and failure.
Nothing human is immune to fatigue, poor judgement and mistakes.
Nothing natural is perfectly predictable, consistent or controllable.
When you combine those three facts the result is inevitable, if you move oil by the millions of barrels as the US rail network has been doing. Failure of a human or mechanical component is simply inevitable. The cause of failure can be anything, in Megantic it was fatigued mechanical parts working in concert with human elements that made poor decisions. But it can be something so simple as an extra-cold day in January that pulls a ribbon weld apart. The idea of a derailment free world in which CBR is transported safely 100% of the time is nothing more than a dream.
I don't think accidents can't be minimized, but society puts a $ before pretty much everything else. Can we dramatically reduce the likely hood of an accident involving CBR? Sure, but at what cost? We've tried stronger tanks, they help in the low speed accidents, but if you accordion a train at 60 they crack just like the older cars. So, we can mix the safer cars with reduced speeds. BNSF's last big mistake was at about 30 when they picked a switch, still got a big boom. So, that leaves your standard railroad speeds of 25 and 10. Hard time believing a 5mph difference is gonna do it. Slow everything to 10, including all on coming trains, only the CPC tanks, inspect the line between every train. Pretty soon that $52 barrel of oil costs you $50, $60, $70 to ship it cross country. Which makes Saudi/Brent/Russian oil cheaper when shipped half way round the world.
Oil train derailments are as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning. Could most be prevented? Yes, but the economic justifications we use as a society put the emphasis on lower fuel prices, not the absolute safety of transport. When you look at the numbers I posted a while back, you can draw many conclusions, but I'm still comfortable knowing the trains roll by in the night, less than 1500' away.
