Coal Train blockaded in Newcastle

Submitted by naught101 on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 10:42

FUCK YEAH!

http://www.climateimc.org/en/climate-actions/2007/11/19/coal-train-blockaded-newcastle

Rising Tide stopped a coal train this morning, in the world's biggest coal port. They blocked the whole line to the Kooragang terminal, and that backed up the rest of the coal line, blocking the whole port.

Thanks to the Sandgate Rail Fly over, recently completed, the blockage didn't affect the passenger line at all - I dunno, but I doubt that was an intended side-effect of the project.

News is being a bit slow, but it's up there. The ABC is being even more fucked than usual.

At a close guess, considering the port currently exports 90 million tonnes of coal a year, then every hour that the blockade continues, about 10,000 tonnes of coal are stopped for being exported (postponed, but if we begin to wind down the coal export industry in the next few years, then it's the same thing). That's equal to about 27,000 tonnes of C02 and hour. Beat that. The train's already been stopped there for two hours...

Brian Dale, from ARTC, said on ABC said RT was "incredibly stupid ... because the trains cannot stop quickly..". Seemed like the train stopped pretty quickly to me. Don't get me wrong, I understand the dangers, and I'm 100% sure that the people who stopped the train were extremely careful, and followed the guidelines for doing so, which are freely available on the ARTC website

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Comments

mudlarky (not verified)

Mon, 11/19/2007 - 11:13

Great stuff - a really positive action following up on the latest dire reports on climate change, and the GreenPeace Munmorah action. Keep the Coal Menace in the news! Well done Rising Tide, you rock!