Western Railroad Discussion > Seattle No to Coal rally

Found this on Facebook just a few moments ago... Around 2,000 people expected..

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/563707_10151328240993545_1273193467_n.jpg

Make no mistake. The coal will be exported and it will be brought down to the waterfront by rail. All of that may happen in Mexico, but it WILL happen.

UP just recently re-secured the abandoned right-of-way of the old EP&SW line from Benson to Naco, AZ, where it could tie in with the Mexican rail system. Lay a little bit of new track on an old right-of-way and you can have directional running --- loads via Naco, empties via Nogales, as the trains make their way to and from the Port of Guaymas.

There is no Spanish translation for the term "NIMBY."

I guess the line through Boise City, OK will possibly get a little busier.

http://www.transportationissuesdaily.com/coal-shipments-may-bypass-nw-ports-to-export-from-mexico/

Re-secured? I had not heard of this. When did it happen and how is the R.O.W "re-secured"?

tomstp Wrote:
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> Re-secured? I had not heard of this. When did it
> happen and how is the R.O.W "re-secured"?

"Read all about it!"

http://www.altamontpress.com/discussion/read.php?1,77310,77310#msg-77310

That's the point most of these yo-yo's never quite grasp. Most of the things they protest WILL happen, just somewhere else and all of the supposed bad things will still take place, but their area will receive no economic benefit from it to offset the bad. When Steel Dynamics wanted to build a new steel mill in Allen County Indiana, everybody was up in arms about the supposed pollution, even though the plant would meet every standard put forth. They finally put up such a fuss, that Steel Dynamics built their new plant directly arcross the road from Allen County in Whitley County. Now Whitley County gets all that tax revenue, and the pollution, if there IS any, blows across the road into Allen County. Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/12 20:04 by junctiontower.

That really is the crux of the situation. Whatever happens on this side of the Pacific won't stop China from building power plants and burning coal. And by doing so they are lowering the cost of power while the cost of power here keeps going up, causing more manufacturing jobs to move overseas. And even if the residents of Seattle and Bellingham prevent a coal export terminal from being built in the Northwest, the coal trains will still roll right through both of those cities on their way to Canada. If we would embrace these projects, thousands of jobs could be created when we sorely need them. I'm guessing these protestors won't wise up until their jobs go away and they run out of unemployment.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

The major problem is going to be the Mayor of Seattle. He is just anti anything that smacks of manufacturing and thinks he can somehow have the say over what the railroad carries. Unfortunately, he has the backing of the Birkenstock crowd in the Pacific Northwest which are definitely NOT in the majority, but are definitely the noisiest. On TV last night they asked some of the "protesters" why they didn't want coal coming through the Seattle area and the predominate response was that it's "...dangerous to haul coal..."

I have said before, and I'll say it again, there will have to be something done about covering the loads to keep that criticism at bay. Failing that, the railroads will have a battle on their hands to haul coal through Seattle.

a737flyer Wrote:
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> On TV last night they asked some of the "protesters"
> why they didn't want coal coming through the Seattle
> area and the predominate response was that it's
> "...dangerous to haul coal..."

It's dangerous getting out of bed each morning. You might slip and fall on the floor. It's dangerous staying in bed. You might get struck by a meteor. These people must be afraid of their own shadows.

Coal is a danger????....ha....as if everything else the railroads haul now is "safe". It makes zero sense. I live right on the Coos Bay Rail Link in Oregon, we're having similar social/political issues in "liberal" Eugene with a proposed coal terminal in Coos Bay. Eugene is fighting it like Seattle. I'd personally rather see coal trains than ammonia, chlorine, gasoline, phenol and LPG tankers, but moving big heavy loads is what railroads DO. I would really suggest that if people have problems with trains, that they move to non-railroad towns, and if its just the whole coal concept in general, start writing letters to politicians in China and let the trains alone. I wear Birks. I drive a Volvo. I even drink lattes occasionally :) But I am on the side of jobs and railroads on this issue. I am more concerned with my neighbors lack of work and my county's shrunken tax base than some hypothetical "danger" from hauling coal.