Why not more TankTrains considering all the new oil "plays"?

I'm kind of surprised that the oil industry has been able to ramp up the ability to originate and receive rail shipments of crude oil as quickly as they have.

Most oil is unloaded at the source.  For example, anything that comes by ship (that kind of tanker) goes directly to the refinery at a dockside unloading facility (sometimes, off shore) or is pumped by a pipeline from the terminal to the refinery, especially if the refinery in inland.

The processed and refined end-product is usually moved via a significantly complex series of underground pipelines.  It is similar, in my view, to the US submarine fleet.  It's there and we know it's there but we do not know much about it - for security reasons.

Not sure if this is on-topic or not, but I read the statement to be why there are not more oil tank cars (the train type).  In summary, they are a relic.  Not saying they don't have a place in the economy, just saying there are more efficient and more 'safe' methods of transporting oil and the related, refined products.

Thanks.

Plenty of oil trains running through here, night & day.

Kent in SD

I assume that by tank train you mean the series of connected tank cars.  I don't see these being used on the new oil trains.

All you need to do is look on the east coast near the refineries.  I see big trains in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania

The GATX TankTrains with CGTX patched reporting marks and CN logos are heading West of Chicago to pick up loads of oil to be refined in Canada.

Andrew

The tank car leasing companies want cars that can be used in a variety of different commodity services.  Even if a car is built for a crude oil customer today, it may be running in a chemical service a decade from now.  The inter-connected tank cars in a TankTrain set up don't have that flexibility without shopping the car for major modifications.

Curt