Day 17: June 25, 2013

Today I spent most of the day searching online for the reasons behind the rise of crude oil transportation by rail and the key origins and destinations of this transportation. I found very helpful data in both AAR (Association of American Railroads) and EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) websites. I first analyzed the trend of the past years and then, after some research, I located the main areas of crude oil production and the location of the most important refineries in the U.S. Tomorrow, I will try to analysis this data to determine the frequent routes that are followed by the crude oil unit trains. In addition, I will prepare a couple of slides summarizing all of this information so that Xiang and Jesus can take a look at it.

At 12:00 we had the RailTEC weekly meeting where Athaphon (uiuc alumnus) gave a short presentation on the Thai Railways Development Plan. He first briefly summarized the railway situation in Thailand to then talk about the important investments that are taking place in order to improve the infrastructure and also to develop the high speed train system. Among other things, it was very surprising to see how they use different materials for certain infrastructure elements due to different cost (example: majority use of concrete ties)

Today:

-Understand the reasons for the rise of crude oil transportation by rail      (done)
-Find key origins and destinations of this transportation                           (to be finished)
-Literature review on Railroad Hazmat Transportation                             (to be finished)
-Attend the RailTEC weekly meeting                                                     (done)

*-Safety group meeting with Athaphon Kawprasert's (Kwan)                      (done)

Next day:
-Find key origins and destinations of crude oil transportation
-Work on presentation of oil transportation by rail
-Literature review on Railroad Hazmat Transportation