Ethanol Trains to Revere

bostontrainguy wrote:Late news:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog ... cambridge/

Note the detailed Department of Transportation report mentioned

What...does Boston Magazine just up and print PR pieces from NIMBY's now? There wasn't a single word in there about pros/cons, or the alternative of having all those trucks on the road. Just non- fact-checked red meat for the pearl-clutcher set.

And people wonder why print journalism is dead.

At the federal level, I wonder what will happen. The the feds could tell the state to cool it. After all this is interstate commerce and I don't believe the state (any state) will be allowed to stop that. The state may have purchased ROW's from the B&M but I'm sure there was a clause in that sale that gives the freight railroad the right to conduct business as it sees fit. I don't see NS, PAR and or Global walking away from this with nothing. There will probably be some compromise from both sides. But still we have to wait and see what the state does.

b&m 1566 wrote:At the federal level, I wonder what will happen. The the feds could tell the state to cool it. After all this is interstate commerce and I don't believe the state (any state) will be allowed to stop that. The state may have purchased ROW's from the B&M but I'm sure there was a clause in that sale that gives the freight railroad the right to conduct business as it sees fit. I don't see NS, PAR and or Global walking away from this with nothing. There will probably be some compromise from both sides. But still we have to wait and see what the state does.

The ROW was never abandoned. It's an OOS/railbanking designation--not abandoned/landbanked--with Pan Am reserving all freight rights and reactivation-with-due-notice rights in the railbanking statute. From the STB's standpoint this is like the G&U reactivation where the law weights heavily to the RR and the burden of proof to stop it weights heavily on the locals. Chances are overwhelming that they'll prevail in a legal dispute. The problem is the state and municipalities have lots of ammo for an Operation Chaos of delay tactics and general harrassment, and PAS probably has a clearly-set threshold for how much s*** it's willing to put up with for how long before it no longer sees the bottom-line upside in pressing forward (though that may be a good thing, since PAR-proper could've easily been goaded into another Milford & Bennington-esque mutually assured destruction feud that wouldn't have done it any favors with the state).


I'm not surprised the attention whore state legislators are so lazy they're shooting their mouths off before even having a staffer read up for them on beginner's Interstate Commerce 101. I am sort of surprised the towns are so inept at seeing the forest through the trees that they aren't even trying to jack up the state for leverage and free money...instead opting for the scorched-earth approach we thought only the Upton Board of Selectmen were dumb enough to pursue. You'd figure Chelsea would see a golden opportunity here to push for Eastern Route grade separation at Eastern Ave. and Everett Ave. as a concession. Or the bedroom communities like Shirley trying to ransom for a new firehouse or sound walls or other free money like bedroom communities have successfully goaded the T into doing with every commuter rail extension. I mean...they have to know on some level that defeating this means more tanker trucks on their streets, and that a damned-if-they-do/damned-if-they-don't situation is a golden opportunity to squeeze for free stuff. Unless that many towns truly are Upton-level stupid and self-destructive. Not a stretch, but I would've thought the likes of Chelsea and Cambridge a smidge savvier than that.

The grade seperation, new fire station, sound walls, etc. is was I was getting at when, I said there will have to be compromises. This is all political now and in the end just a long stall tactic. In the end Global, PAR & NS have something to loose from this. They'll eventually get it but at a steep cost.

Ethanol trains come through Worcester every week and head South to Providence with no issues. Maybe if Global sent a few dozen empty tanker trucks to the unloading site, the NIMBY's would get a visual understanding of tankers on the highway and increased traffic vs. on a dedicated rail line. Wasn't there a nasty fuel tanker explosion a while back in Everett or in that area a while ago?

JoeF

Yes...Santilli Circle on Route 16, 2007: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... ?page=full

Driver was speeding, hit some black ice, and flipped over on the ramp. Set fire to cars and houses over 300 feet away.






Trains ain't gonna speed or flip over on black ice.

http://www.eastietimes.com/2013/05/29/p ... -proposal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wrote this on the GRSSightings Yahoo Group but: If Global has already filed for a Chapter 91 license with MA DEP the state is in
for a lawsuit if said license is denied due to legislation passed after the filing date of the application. Then again, Global still has to do business here, they may cut their losses and bag it.

If this law goes through as is,will this mean states can now dictate what can and cannot go through there state? Or will the feds throw this law out?

I see the STEP Yahoo Groups already has a posting about the CSX Maryland
wreck/explosion...and so it goes...

D

Oh boy.

They probably failed to mention it was caused by a truck (and there are obviously no grade crossings in any of the densely populated towns in discussion) and that the train was doing 49 mph (Ethanol will either be 10 or restricted speed in said towns).

There are in Chelsea.

Great legislation. I wonder how they feel about the Irving facility in the same location that has 69,000 barrel capacity of ethanol storage according to the EPA? From what I've been able to find, the facility has been blending ethanol into gasoline since at least 2003. Legally, I wonder if the amendment can work since it covers storage of the ethanol vs. transportation of it.

jr145 wrote:There are in Chelsea.

good call, forgot about that cluster of xings.

newpylong wrote:I wrote this on the GRSSightings Yahoo Group but: If Global has already filed for a Chapter 91 license with MA DEP the state is in
for a lawsuit if said license is denied due to legislation passed after the filing date of the application. Then again, Global still has to do business here, they may cut their losses and bag it.

Agree. If the legislation is passed after the fact global would have a very good case. Not sure if it would be worth it for them in the long run pissing off a bunch politicians.

Sad all this fuss over just 2 trains a week.