Class II's Playing In The Class I's Sandbox?

First there was Megantic, now Aliceville.

While there have been crude oil derailment incidents occurring on Class I (One) properties, they do not seem as severe as those occurring on Class II's (Two). This has started to have this 'industry observer' (yes, I have had my railfanning days in the past; but past is past) question if the Class II simply have the institutional infrastructure to handle this visible, and it would appear considerably more volatile than generally thought, commodity.

To what extent did Montreal Maine and Atlantic have a 'PR Shop' on speed dial to respond to Megantic was it really the wisest course to have your American CEO travel to the Canadian scene, show off his 'A-game' public relations skills, and in the process pin the blame on his Canadian employee, the Locomotive Engineer? The question has to be raised if Genesee & Wyoming has the institutional infrastructure to handle Aliceville.

Now Aliceville will fade from the headlines; to date, I have only seen staff reporting by the Wall Street Journal; other has been from wire services such as Reuters. There were no personal injuries, the incident occurred in a remote area, the spill will be contained, although the environmental community will be quick to tout that the Tombigbee River has been contaminated and so of course has the entire chain of waterways into which it feeds.

But the question lingers: will the activities of these Class II's adversely affect the glow of the most promising new source of traffic the industry has developed but with the potential losses from coal (41% on the ton miles 22% of the revenue) and PANAMAX it badly needs or will this latest incident simply fade off page one and transport of crude oil by rail continue to grow

Finally, here is Genesee & Wyoming's 'communique' regarding the Aliceville incident, it appears to be presented in a straight forward 'just the facts, Ma'am' manner.

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I'm kind of shocked by how little press this incident has gotten. I'm also a bit surprised that, to date, there've only been three or four posts about it on RAILROAD.NET — from me, from you, and from bostontrainguy (and I'm not sure if I would have even heard about it if it hadn't been for bostontrainguy's initial post).

I understand the concept of "if it bleeds, it leads," and apparently (thankfully) there was no "bleeding" in this incident. But still, to see the photos of tank cars piled up and burning, it was an eerily similar scene to Lac-Mégantic.

I'm not familiar with the region involved, but knowing what I know about water, it's not unreasonable to fear that this incident could have a significant negative impact on drinking water quality for people whose water is sourced from other bodies of water that may be fed by the waterway affected by the spill.

I'm also not familiar with the Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway, so I can't speculate on whether or not this is just "par for the course" for a Class II handling oil, or if it was just something unique to the A&GC (and MM&A). In my state of Maine, the other Class II road — Pan Am — also had a derailment involving Bakken crude, but thankfully it occurred at very slow speed, and less than one gallon of oil was spilled. Nevertheless, living a mile away from their largest yard, and knowing that their line crosses bodies of water that are absolutely CRITICAL to Maine's economy, I occasionally find myself pondering various unpleasant "what-if" scenarios.

This issue is multifaceted. Many formerly marginal lines are now main arteries for this new oil traffic. In some cases, the repair and upgrade has not kept up with the traffic influx. The lesser financial conditions of the class II carriers mean that they must keep their fingers crossed, until the oil revenue allows upgrades.

CP had kept the D&H in fair shape. It had to be good enough to support passenger service. They really pulled out the stops since the oil started. My point is that they have the resources to make upgrades.

Since I spend about half my time in Quebec, I have seen all the press on Megnantic. Articles about MMA/ Ed Bernhardt were still page 3 or 4 news well into September or October. This could mean a couple of things. A large company may be able to better spin the news. A large publicity and legal staff may have been able to mitigate the bad press.

I still feel that the whole story has not been revealed. The question about handbrakes should have been positively ruled in or out immediately after downloading the event recorder. If the conductineer properly tested them, then the tape would have show air released, speed 0 mph. The issue about the fire department pressing the emergency fuel cutoffs should be moot. Any railroader knows not to trust the airbrake, when anything is left unattended.

This makes me suspicious of either some kid pulling leavers, or outright terrorism. There was a local newspaper article that they were trying to get more information. Transport Canada has not released any information, and the paper was filing for freedom of information. This effort was stonewalled. This seems to confirm my suspicion.