(The Canadian Press circulated the following article on December 5.)
VANCOUVER — Seven empty cars on a CN Rail train left the track Monday in the Cheakamus River canyon north of Vancouver, the third accident in the area this year.
Company spokesman Graham Dallas said seven empty cars went off the tracks on the old B.C. Rail line between Squamish and Whistler. “Seven cars towards the back half of the train derailed,” said Dallas. “There were no injuries and no dangerous goods involved in the derailment.”
CN management personnel were en route to the scene.
The train was 125 cars in length but that was not in contravention of an order from the federal transport minister earlier this year that the trains be reduced in length.
“The order applied to what we would call conventional trains with locomotives at the front,” said Dallas. “This train had four locomotives at the front and two robotic locomotives in the middle. That is in full compliance with the minister’s order.”
The accident happened in the same region where two previous derailments occurred earlier this year.
The worst crash in B.C. was in August, when several cars went off the tracks and spilled caustic soda into the Cheakamus River, causing a huge fish kill.
The federal transportation minister later ordered CN to shorten the length of its trains on that section of the line.
In Victoria, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon described it as a minor derailment.
“I don’t think we should blow this out of proportion,” he said. “We’re talking about empty rail cars in an area that’s not anywhere near the Cheakamus River. We’re talking about trains that have not actually fallen over. They are still upright so we have to put it in perspective.”
Falcon said the B.C. government has been in touch with federal transportation safety regulator after every derailment on the former B.C. Rail line.
The most recent derailment before Monday’s was in late October when a line of 10 empty CN Rail cars left the tracks while travelling through the canyon. It was the 10th derailment in the previous three months.
The company’s worst accident this year spilled 700,000 litres of oil into a lake near Edmonton in August. CN estimated it would cost $28 million to clean up the polluted lake.
CN has staunchly defended its safety performance, arguing that despite privatization and job cuts, new monitoring technology has made it the safest railway in North America.
Unionized employees of CN have said that CN’s safety record has declined since it was privatized in 1995. It began shedding staff as it expanded operations by taking over U.S.-based Illinois Central Railroad in 1998, as well as Crown-owned B.C. Rail in 2003.