While crude transport by rail has grown quickly, it is still a relatively small part of train traffic and the crude trade.

Just 1.4 percent of U.S. rail traffic in the first half of this year was crude oil, according to the Association of American Railroads, an industry group. Pipelines and tankers remain by far the most important way to move crude. Railroads and trucks together supplied just 3 percent of the crude oil that arrived at refineries last year, according to the Energy Department.

And of all the hazardous material trains carry, crude isn't the most volatile or hazardous. Trains transport materials such as chlorine, phosphoric acid and propane — even rocket fuel for the Space Shuttle was moved by train. Railroads also move three quarters of the nation's ethanol — which is quicker to explode than crude — from Midwest farms to fuel terminals around the country for blending into gasoline.

"Oil isn't scary at all," says Mayor Richard Gerbounka of Linden, N.J., home of Phillips 66's Bayway Refinery. Even if the mayor did think it was scary, he wouldn't be able to stop it — local officials do not have the power to restrict rail traffic.

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