Comparing risks associated with crude oil transportation by rail, road and pipeline: Case study: Lac Megantic

In recent years the oil extraction rate in North America has had ascending trend resulted in numerous accidents such as what happened in 2013 in Lac-Megantic. On the other hand, the pipelines capacity for transfer of hazardous materials is not enough therefore use of alternative modes such as rail and road has been discussed recently. The goal of this study is to compare risks associated with hazardous material (hazmat) transport by rail, road and pipelines. In this study “which mode has less risky to transport hazmat?” utilizing the quantitative risk assessment and geographic information system (GIS), modelling of accident scenarios and calculation of population exposure such as Crude oil transportation accident at Lac-Megantic i.e. the track between New town to St. John, by utilizing the North America's data and GIS. Results show that pipeline option is associated with less risk in comparison with other two transportation modes. This methodology could be used for determining the optimal method for transportation of hazardous materials with minimum damage for mankind.