The Canadian government has introduced its final round of rail safety measures in response to last year’s Lac-Megantic disaster that claimed 47 lives by hiring additional auditors to conduct a “blitz” and by tightening rules to prevent runaway trains.
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said there will also be stepped up enforcement of regulations relating to the labeling of hazardous materials, such as the Bakken crude involved in the explosions and fire in Lac-Megantic.
The changes are the latest in a series of regulatory moves across North America after the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, TSB, issued its final report on the Quebec crash.
Canada has previously toughened tank car safety rules and ordered railways to do risk assessments, produce emergency response plans and improve the security of parked trains.
Transport Canada said it is continuing to research crude oil properties to ensure they are properly classified and is starting a “targeted inspection campaign” on railways to ensure their labeling matches the contents of trains.
Raitt noted that crude oil is something that needs to be moved and that rail is an increasingly popular mode of transportation, placing the onus on the government to “make sure it’s done in the safest possible way,” she said.
However, she conceded that not enough is yet known about “the properties of the crude oil that was being carried” on the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway train that was hauling Bakken crude to the Irving Oil refinery in New Brunswick when the unmanned train, left overnight west of Lac-Megantic, rolled downhill into the town where it derailed.
To close that gap she said Transport Canada staff with expertise in the area will be assigned to conduct research into the hazards of crude oil.
TSB also exposed gaps in how the federal government’s rail safety regime was applied to MM&A.
It said the MM&A train started down the decline after an engine fire that resulted in power being cut to the train’s air brakes, revealing that insufficient hand brakes had been set.
The agency also cited a host of other problems, including mechanical deficiencies with the train, substandard tanker cars and a corporate culture that placed profits above safety.
In addition, Transport Canada, the federal regulator, was fingered for ineffective auditing of MM&A’s mandatory safety plans, a lack of follow-up on well-known safety problems and inadequate oversight.
Raitt said the government has agreed to act on the TSB’s recommendations, including clearer rules relating to the application of hand brakes on unattended trains and the mandatory use of other equipment to prevent parked trains from running away.
But she emphasized that the most important element of the federal action plan was the decision to recruit 10 more auditors across Canada to examine the safety management systems of railways.
The TSB probe found that MM&A had been operating for nearly a decade without an adequate safety plan before it underwent its first audit.
Inspectors and audits
Canada’s auditor-general, in a 2012 report, said that despite guidelines that federally regulated railways should be audited, only a quarter had been put through the process.
Raitt also said her department will be adding to the ranks of 105 inspectors, whose job is to check the conditions of tracks and locomotives, as well as increasing training for employees of railways that fall under federal jurisdiction.
“We will always remember what happened in Lac-Megantic, and I do believe that the measures we are announcing will improve railway safety and make the transportation industry more accountable,” she said.
In addition, Raitt said the government has issued an emergency directive specifying how many brakes must be applied to a stationary train, depending on the slope and the weight of the train.
Previous federal rules called only for a “sufficient” number of handbrakes to be applied.
The directive also includes new requirements for testing handbrakes and using additional defense procedures to prevent trains from rolling away.
Canadian Pacific Rail said it would comply with the emergency directive and the other measures Raitt announced.
“Having clear, consistent industry rules and operating practices is a prerequisite to developing those habits that make the industry and our communities safer,” said a CP spokesman.
