Oil trains quietly rerouted after W.Va. derailment

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Trainorders: Detoured CSX Oil Train (NS 071) and CSX reroutes to follow old Virginian Line

Oil trains quietly rerouted after W.Va. derailment

Rail Safety

By Edward McAllister & Jarrett Renshaw REUTERS • Saturday February 21, 2015 9:15 PM

Hundreds of communities across the United States have become accustomed to the sight of mile-long oil trains rumbling by in recent years. Until now, Pembroke, Va., was not one of them.

CSX temporarily is rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive derailment about 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, W.Va., on Monday. The trains likely will travel instead on a track that hugs the New River and at one point sweeps into the Pembroke town limits.

In line with a federal protocol established last year after a string of fiery derailments across North America, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management on Tuesday informed 16 counties and cities that oil trains could be coming through their towns, local officials and fire departments said, one day after the Mount Carbon derailment. Those counties passed the information on to local emergency responders. ... “They sent us information and gave us an emergency response guide sheet,” said Chris Neice, Pembroke’s fire chief.

CSX has notified the state that as many as five trains, each carrying between about 24,000 and 70,000 barrels of oil, will be rerouted, according to Jeff Stern, state coordinator at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Virginia Department of Emergency Management

[aquart]

1. When was the last time these tracks were examined?