Coal- Trying to overcome problems in Northeast

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From Reuters at Yahoo for Educational/Research Purposes only.

I hope they are able to catch up by winter.

Monday August 30, 5:38 pm Eastern Time

Coal stocks improve at AES' Northeast power plants

NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - International energy giant AES Corp. (NYSE:AES - news) said Monday railroad operators Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC - news) and CSX Inc. (NYSE:CSX - news) seem to have fixed their Northeast U.S. coal distribution problems following the breakup of Conrail.

``We were very concerned for the last couple of weeks. At worst we were down to four or five days of coal in inventory -- that's only about 6,000 tons. But, Norfolk seems to have turned things around and is responding very well to our needs,'' AES' manager of the Greenidge coal-fired power plant in New York, Doug Roll, said.

``We like to go into winter -- December through February -- with about 80,000 to 100,000 tons of coal in inventory -- that will last about two and a half months,'' Roll said.

The $10.3 billion breakup of Conrail on June 1, 1999, which held a monopoly on rail traffic in the Northeast, led to severe bottlenecks in the delivery of raw materials and other goods in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England.

``As we understand it, every coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania and New York had trouble getting coal shipments following the breakup of Conrail. This problem was not exclusive to AES and its six plants in New York,'' President of AES New York Dan Rothaupt said.

AES experienced severe problems at two of its smaller New York power plants, the 126-megawatt (MW) Westover and the 161-MW Greenidge, forcing AES to make a formal complaint to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

``Those two plants require special bottom-loading railroad cars, which are difficult to off-load in the winter. We needed to get the coal inventory up at those plants before winter hits,'' Rothaupt said.

Heavy electricity usage during one of the hottest July's on record compounded the coal shortage at these plants because they were burning more coal than usual during the summer, Rothaupt said.

``All of the utilities in the old Conrail territory did not receive the service they needed, which is regular coal distributions,'' Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said.

``We experienced severe growing pains (with the acquisition of part of the Conrail lines) and we're still working diligently to provide the type of service our customers deserve,'' Husband said, adding Norfolk Southern would not predict when it may solve its distribution problems.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), August 30, 1999

Answers

* * * 19990830 Monday

Mike Lang:

This _local_ derailment mess has sure put a crimp into JIT (Just-In- Time) production schedules in this region of Michigan.

Haven't heard any trains passing through on our nearby tracks since this event. We're right in the "railroad alley" along Flint-Pontiac- Detroit routes used for the life-line in the automotive production region.

TV news reports have indicated that 2,000 feet of damaged rail needs to be replaced. Expected to be completed by Wednesday morning. That puts that route dysfunctional for about 72 hours. That's got to hurt the supply lines.

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

< http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/qtrain30.htm )

Train cars derail, burst into flames

Big wreck shuts roads; injuries, spills avoided

August 30, 1999

BY CECIL ANGEL and MATT HELMS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Oakland County may have had a brush with possible disaster Sunday after a freight train derailed on the Birmingham and Bloomfield Township border.

Crumpled freight cars tipped on their sides or were crushed accordion- like. Heavy smoke billowed from two burning railcars loaded with automobiles. Small explosions from the fire provided a terrifying sound track.

One railcar rested perilously close to a metal tower carrying electric lines. Then, there were the railcars bearing toxic chemicals. There were no injuries.

Deputy Birmingham Police Chief Richard Patterson said railroad officials don't know why 42 cars of the 97-car freight train derailed but that equipment failure was a possibility.

He said the engineer had been given a red light just before the derailment to slow the Canadian National train from 50 to 15 m.p.h. for conditions on the tracks. The driver applied the brakes.

"There apparently was a lock-up of some sort, but we just don't know," Patterson said. "It could have been a lot worse. It took about a half mile to stop the train."

Gail Currin, who lives on Kensington across from the tracks, said she heard the train at the time it derailed. She said: "It was a long, loud squealing of the brakes.... You could tell for a long time they were trying to stop. And then there was this huge black cloud of smoke."

Firefighters and police who arrived within minutes of the 12:25 p.m. derailment found two train cars carrying automobiles ablaze.

Police closed Big Beaver between Adams and Woodward and closed Adams between Maple and Big Beaver. It was unknown when the roadway would be reopened completely. A hazardous materials team prepared for the worst after being told one of the cars had carried phosphoric acid.

Nearby residents were told to stay indoors and close windows.

Bloomfield Township Fire Capt. Reed Altenburg said officials learned later that up to five cars carrying hazardous materials were intact. He said some cars carried yellow phosphorous; the one thought to be carrying phosphoric acid was empty.

Both chemicals are moderately dangerous, he said.

Canadian National spokeswoman Gloria Combe said of the accident: "It's going to be extremely costly."

She said the train also was loaded with sugar and automobiles and had three empty cars. It was on its way from Pontiac to Flat Rock. She said cleanup should be completed by 10 p.m. today, when the rails should be able to handle traffic.

The derailment also interrupted train service between Chicago and Pontiac. "It's definitely affecting us," said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black.

He said until cleanup is complete, passengers coming from Chicago will be bused from the Detroit station to Royal Oak, Birmingham and Pontiac. Travelers going to Chicago will be bused to the Detroit station from those stations.

"They'll still run on their normal schedule between Chicago and Detroit," Black said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the derailment.

CECIL ANGEL can be reached at 313-223-4531 or angel@freepress.com.

[END TEXT]

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), August 30, 1999.


Just a note: Just heard two truckers on the CB talking about how screwed up the rail shipments have been lately. They have been running extra loads trying to make up the slack.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), August 30, 1999.

Generally, the trains delivering coal from the western part of the country to the east/mid-west have about 100 cars, of 100 tons each. Thats 10,000 tons of coal on each train. So, if Greenridge wants 80,000-100,000 tons stockpiled, really that's only 8-10 trainloads.

Doesn't really seem like a monumental task to get 10 trainloads of coal to one powerplant, does it? Except maybe for Norfolk Southern it is.

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), August 31, 1999.


Pinkrock:

That is 8 to 10 EXTRA trainloads, however. And if more than one coal fired plant is playing catchup???

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 31, 1999.


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