Not if but when …
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-oil-rail-surcharge-20140214,0,3211344.story
Hrmm…makes sense to me.
I suppose $32,500 per 100 car train adds up. I wonder what it costs to upgrade a DOT-111 to safer standards…or likewise I’d be curious to know if there is significant savings on a new car if you trade in the old trucks, couplers, and whatever else…
I guess trade-ins would be considered, the problem is the limited production capacity at the car builders to upgrade or build new.
Haven’t read the March issue of TRAINS yet (just arrived yesterday), has a special report about oil be rail.
Had the shipper properly identified the content we would have not had these big bomb explosion when a train derailed. The industry and the RR have dragged there feet for a long time on replacing these cars. So now the bottom line is we the consumer will suffer with the increase shipping penalties. Later RJD
From what I read the RRs have tried to get the owners/shippers of the cans to upgrade and/or replace. At least that’s what they say!
The paper trail on the Lac-Mégantic disaster apparently indicates a higher declared volatility class for the road portion and the lower one for the rail portion. If the higher volatility class would have been transfered/applied to the rail portion, special handling routine(s) would apply. The optics would indicate that getting into a spot check on the road would be more likely than on the rail.
We will be paying for the new, or the improved, cars as well, little doubt about that.
You can either pay the surcharge (and lawsuits from accidents) at the pump, or we can pay for new tanks at the pump. Perhaps pipelines will happen too…
Rockwall Canyon Jeff said:
You can either pay the surcharge (and lawsuits from accidents) at the pump, or we can pay for new tanks at the pump. Perhaps pipelines will happen too…
Yep, that’s the way it goes.
The article in TRAINS regarding the Oil on Rail mentions that it gives the refiners a big advantage buying from the cheapest source - a very large discount on the Bakken and Alberta Tarsands product.
If that’s the case the price of gas should be going down in the “very near future”.
