(The following article by Mark Hume was posted on the Globe and Mail website on November 4.)
VANCOUVER — Just days after CN Rail promised to do a better job in response to two derailments in the Squamish area, another CN train ran off the tracks yesterday, this time dumping 10 cars near Sunset Beach.
There was no environmental damage and no one was injured, but the accident left CN scrambling to explain its operating procedures.
All three recent derailments — including one that had a disastrous impact on the Cheakamus River salmon stocks — have involved long trains running on tracks acquired from BC Rail in 2003.
The national rail carrier has come under fire in British Columbia and Ottawa over the accidents.
Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said yesterday the federal government has called for an audit of CN’s safety record and he is hoping to see the company make improvements.
CN spokesman Mark Hallman said that the federal audit is of the entire industry, not just CN, and the company is “actively co-operating.”
Mr. Hallman also said CN has the best safety record among North American rail companies, as measured by criteria established by the U.S. federal railroad administration.
Jim Feeny, a CN spokesman at the scene of the latest accident yesterday, said it occurred in spite of changes to operating procedures that were made to address the safety issues raised by the two earlier derailments.
On Tuesday, two British Columbia cabinet ministers met with Peter Marshall, CN’s senior vice-president for Western Canada, seeking assurances that the rail company, which took over BC Rail in 2003, would do a better job.
Mr. Feeny, who attended the meetings, said CN promptly took steps to meet their concerns.
“All the things we talked about in terms of distribution of power and train length were addressed. The commitment was to do a better job. We delivered on those commitments,” Mr. Feeny said.
Questions have been raised about CN’s practice of running longer trains than BC Rail did, and of its placement of engines, which have powerful locomotives at the front instead of distributed throughout the train.
Grant Young, former director of safety, rules and regulatory services for BC Rail, said the accidents indicate that something is wrong with CN’s operating procedures.
He said BC Rail restricted trains to two locomotives and fewer than 100 cars and had only two derailments in 15 years in the Cheakamus and Sunset Beach areas.
The train that crashed into the Cheakamus River in August, dumping a load of sodium hydroxide into the water, had 144 cars, pulled by five locomotives. An accident in the area last month involved 122 cars, and the trains that crashed yesterday had 131 cars, with four engines in front and two further back.
Mr. Young said that if too much power is at the front, the engines can simply “straighten out the train” and pull it off the tracks.
Commenting on the 144-car train that crashed into the Cheakamus River, Mr. Young said in an e-mail: “BC Rail would never have allowed that train to operate in that manner as the outcome would have been totally predictable.”
Randall Lewis, a spokesman for the Squamish First Nation, said CN has to take action to ensure that it doesn’t have more derailments.
“They did enormous damage to the Cheakamus River. This can’t go on,” Mr. Lewis said.
He said 4,500 dead fish were picked up along the river after the August spill, but that there had been many more that weren’t found.
“The main slug of dead fish was washed out to sea. I was down at the mouth of the Cheakamus that morning and there were thousands of fish washed out dead. There were pink salmon jumping out of the water onto the shore. . . . There were two dead seals. . . . Their heads were burned and scarred by the caustic soda.”
Mr. Lewis said CN Rail should be prepared to spend “in the millions” to restore the river. A CN spokesman declined to comment on the issue.
CN has donated $250,000 to the Pacific Salmon Foundation and has agreed to fund Department of Fisheries work to the tune of $81,000.