editorial: Missing links on the rails
Is it any wonder the ponderous freight trains laden with crude oil are the source of continuing concern for residents at the Ezra Prentice Homes in Albany, and elsewhere along the rails in the Capital Region and the state?
Residents still do not have a satisfactory answer for how officials will keep a disaster like the one last year in Lac-Megantic, Quebec — where the town was incinerated and 47 people were killed — from happening to them.
This week brings further analysis of two significant obstacles to safe crude oil transport: Safety inspections of trains and tracks have not kept up with the crude oil industry’s growth, and the crude itself is not being adequately stabilized before shipment.
Safety inspections by the Federal Railroad Administration cover about 1 percent of the nation’s freight and passenger tracks and equipment, according to a 2013 Government Accountability Office report. The state supplements that federal work.
http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/missing-links-on-the-rails/30102/
