BELLEVILLE, Mich. — A Norfolk Southern train derailed this morning in Van Buren Township in the Detroit area, the news site MLive reports, but a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of the Environment says “there is no environmental concern” from the incident.
“Nothing is leaking,” said spokeswoman Jill Greenburg.
No injuries were reported.
A Facebook post from the Van Buren Township Department of Public Safety says approximately 30 cars were involved, but photos and video from the scene show about 10 cars that are derailed. One that overturned was carrying grain; others were empty, including several coil steel cars. One of the train’s cars was reportedly carrying a hazardous material — liquid chloride, a salt product used in road treatment — but that car was not among those that derailed.
Several local roads were temporarily closed as a result of the derailment.
If you look at the right side closer, you can see some standing water and it appears that some water had recently rushed through the area. Maybe this was due to a washout and nothing more. Unfortunately it will be a while before we get a report from the NTSB to find out a reason for this.
People worry about hazmat cars but often forget things like grain silo explosions which means under the right conditions every grain carrying car could also be a hazmat car.
Looking at these comments; if even the RR fans are down on the way the RRs run, they really are in trouble.
Ii’s time to ban and eliminate PSR and put limits on how many cars a freight train should have in it,s consist. Also a stop to these mega mergers of railroads and breakup these giants whose operating practices are putting countless lives in danger with their reckless operation of super long trains, little to no inspection of freight cars or safety procedures in loading and carrying dangerous and hazardous materials and chemicals. Also when the work force is cut down to a bare bones operation, disaster will strike as we have been witinessing over these past few weeks. These super mergers of big rail corporations only make things more dangeous in operations and with very few workers to see that things are managed and done right. Between PSR and these rail mergers it is a recipe for more accidents and tragic loss of life for both the public, residents living in towns where the railroad passes through and the rail workers as well. Of course the syndicate known as Wall Street with their greedy and selfish investors share equally in the blame and have blood on their hands in all this. Wall Street has created and made stooges and vassals of these railroads to serve their needs and fill their coffers with money
Joseph C. Markfelder
Predecessor Southern Railway System did not have so many mishaps and mismanagement. The New York – New Orleans ‘Crescent’ which was all-Pullman east of Atlanta was the railway’s premier train.
RJ Corman’s rail recovery division has to be making a pretty good nickel these days.
Cranemasters would give us calendars and hats every time they were called to a derailment on my territory on NS.
NS,the worst of the class 1’s. Ask the folks who work there.
Let’s see. Looks like a straight an flat right of way . No switches or road crossings. Maybe poor right of way or car maintenance was the problem?
Further to the recent derailments, NS is beholding to its stockholders, however the media and the uneducated have complicated the issue. Now the lawyers are involved and the silly talk begins.
The controlled burn was not some plot cooked up in bar on a napkin. The testing must be conducted to determine the contaminates of concern (including daughter products). Testing should include particulate, air, surface water , groundwater and soil. After the level of contaminate and types of contaminate are determined, then we can action a remedial action plan. It requires an intrusive investigation.
This is NOT a huge deal, Professional Geoscientist, Geologist and Engineers deal with this everyday. However the lawyers are now involved, clean up money just went to the legal department. Good Luck, could have been fixed now it with become a superfund site.
The lawyers wouldn’t be involved if NS had not dumped a large load of chemicals.
Can’t stay on the rails. Reminds me of the old L & N (the OLD Unreliable) and ICG in the mid to late 1970’s. They made money but didn’t put it back into the railroad.
20 years ago NS was the brightest star of the Railroads. Now it’s flaming out because of Wall Streets greed.
Seems like there is a derail every week? When are they going to start blaming them on deferred maintenance?
This is getting pathetic.
Looks like the coil cars are brand new.
The legs under the “Thoroughbred of Transportation” are showing a great deal of weakness.
Question for Mr. Buttigieg: Mayor Pete, you criticize Mr. Trump for dumping the ECP rule. Well, Mayor Pete, you’ve been SecTrans for two years now. Have you reinstated the rule?
Oh, sorry, Mayor Pete, you’ve been too busy complaining about Detroit’s Walter P. Chrysler Freeway for allegedly ruining the city. Which isn’t even remotely true.
“Empty Suit” is too good a term for you, Mayor Pete. You’re actually a well-dressed political bully, hiding your own incompetence by trashing the opposition.
This is the former Wabash main line from Detroit to Fort Wayne. Van Buren Charter Township lies generally west of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and generally east of Willow Run Airport.
Websites for Fox News and Detroit Free Press (freep.com) did not identify the name of the railroad, which is strange given all the publicity about the same railroad’s derailment in Ohio.
“We HaUl EvErYtHiNG sAfElY aNd OnTiMe!”
That made laugh, thanks!
Laugh emoji.