(The Canadian Press circulated the following article on December 7.)
RICHMOND, B.C. — A CN Rail train has derailed on a trestle crossing the Fraser River between Richmond and Burnaby, sending a railcar loaded with automobiles into the Fraser River.
The derailment late Monday night was the second of the day for CN, after seven empty cars jumped the tracks in the Cheakamus Canyon north of Squamish, B.C.
A stretch of the Vancouver-area bridge’s railing was snapped off where the car carrier plunged into the water.
Several dozen CN workers and an environmental company were at the site to assess the damage while a massive crane was brought in to pull the train car out of the river.
A CN Rail spokesman said four cars derailed in a 39-car train. A number of automobiles – which were being carried on enclosed double-decker railcars – were submerged in the river as a result of the derailment.
The derailed rail cars impeded some traffic on the Fraser River.
There was no indication of anything toxic spilling into the river, said the CN spokesman, although some gasoline from the automobiles may have leaked.
The line in Richmond has been owned for a long-time by CN rail, unlike the one north of Squamish, which is a former B.C. Rail line taken over by CN.
The train that derailed in the Cheakamus Canyon on Monday was 125 cars in length and not in contravention of an order from the federal transport minister earlier this year that trains on that line be reduced in length. There have been a total of 11 derailments on the line 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.
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.
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 the company’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.