Saturday, October 19, 2013

Railcars and Oil Are a Deadly Mix

'Geriatric Joe' Oliver thinks trains daily  shuttling a million barrels of Athabasca dilbit to the B.C. coast is a dandy idea.

Oh, sure, he's heard about some dustup in Lac Megantic but that was a freak accident.  Hey, if it happened a half mile up-track or a half mile down-track maybe not so many people would have been incinerated.  Freak accident.  Can't be helped. 

Okie Dokie, Joe, how about one closer to home?   Admittedly a much smaller train, vastly smaller than what you have in mind to criss-cross British Columbia's mountainous wilderness, but still.



A CN Rail train carrying liquefied petroleum gas and crude oil has derailed and exploded about 80 kilometres west of Edmonton, prompting an evacuation in the tiny community of Gainford.

Parkland County Emergency Services says it received a call about the accident involving a westbound train around 1 a.m. MT Saturday.

The Transportation Safety Board says 13 cars — four carrying petroleum crude oil and nine carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — left the tracks along Highway 16 and Range Road 61.

Seems like you don't know your ass from your pie hole about hauling massive amounts of highly lethal dilbit by rail, Joe.

6 comments:

the salamander said...

'.. left the tracks ..' ?? Interesting phrase ..
from Transportation Safety Board
but did not ascend to heaven.. or achieve liftoff ?

My great uncle (a western CP trainman) would have said 'the damn thing derailed and we don't know if we have dead or injured crew or locals' .. or 'there was a gawd all mighty train wreck, tank cars burning in the fields.. we're looking for the crew'

Ol Joe Oliver .. Huh .. ! Supply Chain to China guru

Stevie and Ray's conflict oil troll and Tom Flanagan's get rid of the indians disciple.. our Minister To Foreign Corporate Interest, energy bagman, bitumen broker, petro pimp and just plain complicit almighty dollar partisan, treaty trasher and nasty ass security advisor/accuser re dangerous aboriginal elders, concerned Canadians, tree huggers, environmental advocates ..

What a doddering malicious blind & twisted sellout. The Harper oil barker

He really does not 'get it' .. Its all win win profit/loss/risk, futures prices, China, stock options, made up job nonsense, royalties, trade deals ..

Not a shred of recognition re young Canadians, dreams, wishes, democracy, decency, ethics or the toxic politics he's a senior asshat sellout in service to..

Or that he's just another stooge.. with the other rip n strip facilitators like Jason Kenney, Clement, Baird, Fantino & Flaherty.. and wimps like Mackay, freaks like Poilievre, Moore et al ..

The dick really needs to be straightened out...
and it should be soon .. ASAP .. Pronto.. toute suite
He's messing with Canada as if he owns it...
or is some sort of dutiful & diligent contributer..

Your legacy is toxic Joe Oliver .. toast
I don't see any way you can recover.. or back down
Best you resign.. step away..
Its the best thing you can do now for Canada
Just go away ... and not by train

Dana said...

Maybe Joe will be riding on the next one to blow.

Proof of karma.

e.a.f. said...

Dana, loved the idea of having Joe on the next train. Perhaps we can have stevie riding the rails also.

yes, what did happen to the train crew? Noone seemed to be reporting on them. Of course the MSM may not consider human life all that important. Its the oil, its the gas. that costs money.

Joe won't get it as long as it is exploding in some one else's back yard and it isn't costing him anything.

the rolling stock at C.N. along with their rails are not suited to the transport of oil and gas or anything dangerous. The rolling stock and rails are too old and tired.

Anonymous said...

I have family who worked on the trains. Said there's so much can go wrong on a normal run in the mountains.
Talked about avalanches and mud slides. Trains have no choice but to plow through them at full speed, and the engineers and conductors can only hope to their god or their ancestors there aren't any trees that could smash through any of the cars.
I can't imagine the damage a derailed train could do between Grand Prairie and Prince George. Or between Calgary and Kamloops. And between Vancouver and those aforementioned cities. (And lately, there's been a derailed trained every other year, or every third year.)
Can you imagine the clean up efforts in the Rockies in mid January of a bitumen train? I can't, either. How much would snow that is between two to five metres deep slow such an effort?

LeDaro said...

Maybe Joe should be driver. Two accidents in a short time. Quebec was deadly. Second one did not kill anyone but the pollution may. Dirty oil which may enter the drinking water. How much more stupid these people will get?

e.a.f. said...

They will remain "stupid" for as long as they are in office and making money.

Joe Oliver isn't interested in how many people die or how polluted the water and ground get. He is interested in staying in his position in the House of Commons. Remember, the first order of government is to stay in power. We are secondary.

The tankers are not suited for transporting tar/gas. The tracks aren't in the greatest working order, there aren't sufficient thorough independant inspections. The trains travel too fast for the conditions and loads, etc.

Can tar/gas/oil or any dangerous commodity be moved by rail? Yes, but the corproations don't want to spend the money. The bottom line is the bottom line. How much money they can make. These are multinational corporations. They don't owe loyalty to any one country, just to themselves and their corporations, if they continue to pay them enough.