(The Belleville Intelligencer posted the following article by Jeremy Ashley on its website on April 22.)
BELLEVILLE, Ontario — An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) into an explosive two-train derailment Feb. 21 in rural east Belleville continues.
But, a Canadian Pacific Railway spokesman said Monday from Montreal that preliminary evidence is leaning toward a faulty wheel assembly as the possible cause.
Pieces from the derailment of the freight trains have been under the microscope for the last eight weeks to determine the cause of a derailment that sparked a series of explosions that sent massive liquid petroleum gas tanker cars skyward.
The tankers became fiery rockets and were thrown as far as 1.6 kilometres from the rail line in Thurlow Ward. As many as 500 people were evacuated as the explosions continued to rock the area for several hours.
Michele Spenard, CP Rail public affairs spokesman, said the wheel assembly in question is being closely inspected for answers.
“Pieces of the wheel assembly have been sent to Ottawa where they are being investigated by the TSB,” said Spenard.
While he hesitated to confirm that overheating of the wheel assembly was the definitive cause, Spenard said early evidence seems to support the theory.
He did confirm that, shortly before the derailment occurred, high-tech monitors located permanently at trackside near the Lonsdale siding recorded what is called a journal bearing on the suspect wheel assembly that was sparking or burning.
In typical situations, the monitors immediately send a signal to railway managers and the train is usually stopped, the offending car is moved to a siding and the mechanical defect is repaired, said Spenard.
In the case of the Belleville derailment, it appears there wasn’t the time or advance notice to prevent the derailment once the monitors picked up the overheated roller bearing.
It is believed the sparking wheel broke free, destabilizing the eastbound train which then collided with a stopped freight train parked at the Lonsdale siding.
The union, meanwhile, representing CP Rail s maintenance workers says it is concerned about the Belleville derailment and a flurry of others in February that prompted calls for an inquiry by the federal Department of Transportation.
The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees is issuing warnings to Canadians who live along railway corridors that they could be in danger due to staff and maintenance cutbacks by CP Rail.
With 1,000 fewer CP maintenance workers and fewer inspections, say union officials, the possibility of derailment is becoming more worrisome.
In the last 10 years, we have been cut in half. We are fighting the railway constantly because they are contracting this work out, said Kevin Deptuk, vice-president of the Maintenance of Way union. We have been really decimated in the bridge and structures department. With less staff, there is less time to do proper inspections, said Deptuk.
“They (maintenance crews) used to go over their track once or twice a week to inspect the track. They don’t do that anymore. We don’t do it anymore because we don’t have enough bodies or enough time like we used to. It used to be crucial that people out there…knew what needed to be repaired,” he said.
“They (CP Rail) are still attempting to do what they can to reduce the workforce,” said Deptuk. “We understand they are running a business, but you can t run a railway with just push buttons and without labour. ”
Deptuk said CP workers are hearing the “term risk management ” used more and more by a company, he claimed, was pushing the limits of materials instead of regular replacement.
“They keep rail in there that is on the borderline of needing to be replaced, ” said Deptuk. “The track is not up to standard of high speed. ”
Track that is deteriorating, said Deptuk, is forcing slower traffic by trains “at limited speed” because of the track condition. They are trying to get more and more out of their material than ever before.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman John Cottreau could not be reached for comment Monday.
But, the latest annual NTSB railway study (for 2001) reveals there were 127 train derailments in Canada in 2001, 17 of which involved dangerous goods such as liquid petroleums and chemicals. In only six of those cases did dangerous cargo goods escape the confines of the tanker cars.
Of the 2001 derailments, 36 involved explosions.
According to the NTSB report, main-track derailments and collisions accounted for 13 per cent of all accidents in 2001…