Shipping Oil by Rail Creates Big Problems

Railroaded has been following Canadian National Railway’s and Canadian Pacific Railway’s keen interest to ship more oil, including Alberta’s tar sands crude. See this link for earlier coverage.

Rail and Reason has recently posted this excellent article on the subject, pointing out that the extra rail traffic would have significant negative impacts on: the noise and vibration already experienced by residents neighbouring rail lines, additional air quality degradation (diesel fumes), the additional waits at road/rail crossings where waits are already too long, and the additional wildlife carnage on tracks. And, this is in addition to the significant environmental risks associated with shipping oil by rail, especially considering the alarmingly increasing number of derailments and spills.

Rail and Reason concludes its article with, “It will take a lot more than just adding thousands of extra rail cars to carry Alberta’s crude. Until the railways acknowledge and address the social and environmental implications of this proposal, the ‘pipeline on rails’ scheme is just as crude and unrefined as the product they hope to ship.” Be sure to read the entire article.

~ by railroaded on October 24, 2012.