Coal trains

[Luke]

I don't know about other parts of the country, but I have become aware of the large amount of coal/coke that is transported by rail through this area. Everyday at least 2 to 3 trains averaging 125 cars move through my little town daily! That is a lot of coal!

I am curious if parts of the country besides the Midwest have this much traffic? I don't know if it is for export or usage in power plants. I remember coal producing lots of pollution, but maybe this problem has been addressed.

[Ryan Ruck]

Being close to the Ohio River I see a lot of the river traffic. A good portion of that traffic is tug boats pushing coal barges back and forth.

Also, I live in between two coal plants and think they are fairly clean (not as clean as nukes!). There have been some problems with fly ash but, the power company has largely taken care of that.

[American Patriot]

We have a lot of coal trains going through here, and have had for years. I think one of the main power plants south of me is coal powered.

Ok, just checked, yes they use 39,000 tons of coal a day... thats two car loads per hour, and three train loads per day. They also use a hydro-plant near by.

They also use refurbished motor oil, natural gas and purchased wind power to generate electricity (other than coal).

So, we see a lot of coal going through here per day.

http://www.csu.org/environment/energy/index.html