TRANSPORT
Towns launch 'David and Goliath' challenges to crude-by-rail traffic
Jim Adams, mayor of Crystal, Minn., said he and his constituents are "going to make as much noise as we can" over a half-mile stretch of train tracks that haven't even been built. The BNSF Railway Co. proposal in question would link a little-used rail line in Crystal to busier tracks run by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. The connection could send mile-long oil trains through Minneapolis suburbs that have never seen such traffic. Local pushback against BNSF's project reflects broader discontent around freight rail lines across the nation. The surge in crude traffic in recent years -- coupled with a string of oil train derailments and fires -- has pushed cities to act against the very railroads they were often built around.