Well we fought very hard to keep the rail line in Almonte and many were sad to see the rails taken up, but after the disaster in Lac Megantic, perhaps we can count ourselves lucky. At least we need never worry about tanker railway cars filled with oil exploding in central Almonte.
Shipments of oil by rail have increased 28,000 % since 2009. In 2009, 500 carloads of oil were transported in Canada by rail. The Canadian Railway Association recently estimated that as many as 140,000 carloads of crude oil will pass over those rails this year. Arguments abound concerning the safest way to transport oil. Proponents of pipelines have already tried to use the Lac Megantic tragedy as an argument for pipelines.
The Lac Megantic incident is the 4th train derailment involving crude oil that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has investigated this year and there have been 8 incidents of runaway trains in the same period. The Transportation Board has published investigations into six major incidents concerning runaway trains between 2006 and 2012.
Millstone Editor
