I do wonder about the wisdom of hauling a string of railroad cars all filled with toxic chemicals, though. It seems there would be less risk in transporting those chemicals one truckload at a time, especially if they crash and rupture. I'd rather have one truck on a highway crash than 10 rail cars on a railroad.
This is a false dichotomy "one truck on the highway vs 10 rail cars on a railroad".
Those 10 rail cars would not be replaced by 1 truck on the highway. Probably more along the lines of 30 or more. And the more trucks on the road, the increased likelihood of a wreck.
And then there's the increased likelihood that the wreck would be in a more populated place.
You might want to go look at how many millions of tons of hazardous material is transported by rails each year and how often there are serious incidents.
And then look at how many tons of hazardous material are transported by truck and how often there are serious incidents there.
And of course, you need to factor in the monetary costs as well.
It's much cheaper to transport by rail in many of these situations. The companies who use/produce these materials have to pay for transport. Are you prepared to pay more for their products to offset their expenses?
Not saying that I agree with companies valuing profits over people. Just that it's a factor that needs to be addressed if you're interested in finding alternative ways to do things.
I do wonder about the wisdom of hauling a string of railroad cars all filled with toxic chemicals, though. It seems there would be less risk in transporting those chemicals one truckload at a time, especially if they crash and rupture. I'd rather have one truck on a highway crash than 10 rail cars on a railroad.
This is a false dichotomy "one truck on the highway vs 10 rail cars on a railroad".
Those 10 rail cars would not be replaced by 1 truck on the highway. Probably more along the lines of 30 or more. And the more trucks on the road, the increased likelihood of a wreck.
And then there's the increased likelihood that the wreck would be in a more populated place.
You might want to go look at how many millions of tons of hazardous material is transported by rails each year and how often there are serious incidents.
And then look at how many tons of hazardous material are transported by truck and how often there are serious incidents there.
And of course, you need to factor in the monetary costs as well.
It's much cheaper to transport by rail in many of these situations. The companies who use/produce these materials have to pay for transport. Are you prepared to pay more for their products to offset their expenses?
Not saying that I agree with companies valuing profits over people. Just that it's a factor that needs to be addressed if you're interested in finding alternative ways to do things.