(Reuters Canada circulated the following story by Allan Dowd on July 11.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Human error, poor supervision and use of long trains led to a Canadian National Railway Co. derailment that poisoned a river near Vancouver in 2005, federal investigators said on Wednesday.
The Transportation Safety Board said Canada’s largest railway failed to retain adequate “local knowledge” when it reorganized operations to increase productivity on British Columbia’s BC Rail, which it purchased in 2004.
“This is an extreme mountain environment with curves that are twice as sharp and grades more than twice as steep as on other CN main lines. There is no room for error,” said Wendy Tadros, chairwoman of the safety board said in a statement.
Nine cars of a 144-car CN train derailed in Aug 5, 2005, in the scenic Cheakamus River canyon, dumping caustic soda into the water. The spill killed more than 500,000 fish, and restoration is expected to take years to complete.
After CN bought BC Rail, which was then Canada’s third-largest railway, from the British Columbia provincial government, it started running fewer but longer trains so it could use fewer crews. The longer trains used locomotives at the front and midway through the train.
Investigators said locomotives on the derailed train were set up incorrectly, and crews did not recognize the alarm. The train “stringlined” on a curve when the engineer increased power at the front, unaware the mid-train engines had failed.
Investigators said staff cuts and retirements had reduced crew experience on the line, and noted that BC Rail had stopped using longer “distributed power” trains in the area in 2003 because of the difficult terrain.
In 2006, the safety board ordered CN to reduce train lengths in the area.
A Canadian National spokesman said it was studying the report, and could not comment on some of the specifics in it because of pending legal action.
“We believe we had and continue to have appropriate train-handling policies and procedures in place to prevent such derailments when those policies and procedures are properly followed and applied,” CN spokesman Jim Feeny said.
The safety board said it was still worried employees do not have adequate training and safety equipment to detect locomotive failures. It said railways should work with engine makers to improve alarm systems.
“This investigation revealed significant safety issues related to train operations and the use of technology,” the report said.