The federal government put its two cents into the issue of CN Rail safety measures Friday (Nov. 4) following a third CN derailment in the Sea to Sky corridor Thursday, Nov. 3.
One day after the Sunset Beach derailment, Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre issued a news release stating that he has ordered CN to shorten the length of its trains to 80 cars while operating northbound between Squamish and Clinton.
"I am very concerned about the recent CN derailments in British Columbia and that's why we are ordering CN to restrict the length of their conventional trains in the Squamish area as a precautionary measure," Mr. Lapierre said in a news release.But Sea to Sky residents who have adopted the area's latest trend - counting train cars - have noticed that trains are still well beyond 80 cars.
That's because the ruling applies only to "conventional" trains not "distributed-power" trains, according to CN spokesperson Jim Feeny.
"It does not apply to distributed-power, which are the ones that have locomotives at both the head and part way back, nor to trains in any other corridor," said Feeny.
Transport Canada ordered CN to shorten all northward conventional freight trains ascending the grades between Cheakamus and Mons, Pemberton and Birken, and Fountain and Kelly Lake. The order adds regulatory backing to the agreement CN undertook with the province Nov. 1 that it would improve training, add power distribution and increase line inspection. The federal order would have done nothing to change the latest derailment, according to Feeny who said CN was in compliance with the former provincial agreement.
"There was distributed power on that train," he said. "We made commitments about training our employees in this type of operations that they're engaged in, the employees on the train yesterday were fully trained. We talked about inspection and maintenance, that line is maintained very well and was inspected just before the train ran over it. The actual cause of the derailment remains under investigation. What we know is there is no common denominator in these accidents that we've had in BC in recent months."
was party to Transport Canada said the severity and frequency of the derailments led the department to launch a national, targeted inspection and safety review of CN's compliance with railway safety rules.
The inspection was carried out between Aug. 22 and Sept. 16. "Deficiencies and incidences of non-compliance were identified and conveyed to CN on Sept. 27," the department said in its news release.
The report is expected to be made public in December. Meanwhile, CN intends to comply with the federal order to keep conventional trains under 80 cars and live up to its agreement with the province, said Feeny.
"All we can say is we received an order, our policy is to comply with Transport Canada orders," he said. "That's how we operate our business."
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