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Transport Canada investigating CN Rail accidents
Dec, 06 2005 - 12:30 PM
CKNW(AM980) - Transport Canada is investigating the cause of two CN Rail accidents yesterday.
The first accident in the Cheakamus Canyon saw seven-rail cars leave the tracks.
The second incident happened last night when four-cars derailed on a bridge over the Fraser River sending one of those cars into the water.

Transport Canada has previously ordered CN to shorten its trains, however the rail line got around the order by instead putting extra engines throughout the train.
Rod Nelson with Transport Canada says this system of ‘distributed power’ is being looked into. “With that notice in order was a detailed analysis of how their distributed power operator trains operated in that area and they have given us that,” said Nelson. “They gave that to us a couple of weeks ago and we're now reviewing it and also their action plan for that area.”

CN Rail has come under fire for dramatically increasing the length of its trains despite safety concerns.

CKNW(AM980) - We've seen more derailments on the former B.C. Rail line since CN took it over.
The Transportation Safety Board says CN had 10 main track derailments along the former B.C. Rail line through November third of this year, compared to just two such incidents for all of last year.

However, CN spokesman Mark Hallman said CN's own accident statistics, stemming from a U.S. system based on the cost of each derailment, show the number of significant incidents has actually declined since it took over B.C. Rail.


And now 2 more for TODAY.
Dec, 06 2005 - 8:20 AM
RICHMOND/CKNW(AM980) - Another CN Train has gone off the tracks, this time, in Richmond.
CN officials have confirmed four cars derailed shortly after nine last night off a rail bridge at Lulu Island.

That means if it does not cost much, it does not matter.
Maybe they could tell the fish, salmon and the animals that eat them in the cheakamus river.
Maybe tell that to the guys who fly over from Europe, just so they can fly fish there, or the eagles that winter there, every year.

CN is a private company, has bee for 10 years... what do you mean by "federal Liberals fix your train??"

They are starting to fix their trains:

Reading that I see the names: TORONTO and Montreal.
Who sets the standards for this railroad? Who's responsible?
Untill I see something hapening, it's just another BS Liberal Promise.

40,000 litres of highly corrosive caustic soda into the Cheakamus River and killed thousands of salmon and other fish.
Whole page of links.

Well I have no clue why we are blamming people, all I know is that they should seriously take a look at this problem and try to fix it. Too many derailements oocured over this passed year, maybe they just havent thought of the fact that the tracks and trains are old. How about renewing them? Might solve some problems

Steaker: You said: "They are starting to fix their trains" then you provide a clip that says nothing about what is happening in BC. The trains are derailing in BC, that's why this is in the BC thread.
If some of that $1.5 Billion is to be sent to BC, then I'll believe it when I see it.

As for who is to blame: CN may indeed be a private company now but they are still regulated by federal laws. CN, or any private company will do whatever is in their best interest to make money, but these longer trains are derailing far too often.

funny thing is that area or rail has always been CN, never been owned by BC rail shows how good he is at his job

It hasn't much to do with the trains as it does in the track condition or bridge in this case. Shortening the trains is an issue with the track capacity not how well the vehicles are maintained.

True. It's not as easy as the length of the trains. The last de-rail that dumped cars off the bridge only had 22 cars.

“The four rail cars were multi-level auto-carriers that contained new vehicles,” said Dallas. “Three of the rail cars are upright on the tracks. The fourth car is reported to have fallen off the bridge into the river. The train has two locomotives and a total of 39 cars.”

The local union folks are now also getting into it:
"United Transportation Union Local Vice President Wayne Chorneychuk says there needs to be track upgrades and more inspections."

We also had one railcar leaking Zilene yesterday.
I now see why they won't do passenger rail any more. With a safety record like this, the lawsuits would bankrupt the country faster than Paul Martin.

Passenger rail service didn't/doesn't pay the bills for either railroad. They make their money on freight. Passenger trains are forced to give way to the freight if needed as well.

My father works for the CNRail, and a couple years ago in Grand Falls NB, we had around 30 some cars go off the tracks. Some were doubled up, and there were a few propane tanks i believe, they never exploded, thank god. But the problem there was the front car had a flat edge on the rim and broke the track behind it, and the cars finally caught one edge and over they went. Took them a while to clean up!!!

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