CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific and Canadian National will appeal an order by the Canadian government requiring the use of handbrakes when trains stop on mountain grades, an order issued in the wake of a fatal CP accident in February.
In a press release issued Friday, CP President and CEO Keith Creel said the railroad will appeal the order issued on Feb. 8 because “the application of handbrakes in accordance with the Ministeral Order introduces additional risks and will have unintended consequences. …. (We) firmly believe safer options are available and we must get this right.”
CP said it will comply with the order while it appeals and said it will continue to “fully cooperate” with the ongoing investigation into the derailment on Kicking Horse Pass near Field, British Columbia, which resulted in the deaths of three crew members. [See “Three dead in CP derailment in British Columbia,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 4, 2019.] The initial stages of the investigation indicated the train ran away shortly after a crew change [see “Investigators: CP grain train ‘started to move on its own,’” Trains News Wire, Feb. 5, 2019], leading to the order issued by Transport Minister Marc Garneau.
The Toronto Star reports CN is also requesting a review of the rule, quoting an email from railroad spokesman Alexandre Boule: “CN has complied with this order since it came into force, but is of the view that alternative solutions are available that will more adequately address the safety objectives and the realities on the ground.”
Correction is most appreciated. I know you’re an Engineer you’ve stated on here before you hog for UP. I pay attention to your comments, and look forward to your comments on UP PSR status.
@Steven Bauer: That is correct. Over.
@Mike Price: I would hardly call preventing a runaway that could result in death or disaster a “waste of time”. However, I agree that -40 degree temps are extremely dangerous. The real blame lies at the doorstep of the railroad. In those sort of conditions, train size MUST be reduced–stockholder be damned!
Well Braden, I am just going by what you stated in your first post. In my line of work (25 1/2yrs on the railroad, 23 of which are as an engineer) “bled off” and “p***ing away the are are two completely different things.
Steven while that’s not the appropriate term for what happened. What would you call it when the inbound crew places the ABV in emergency in -24 degree temps without tying some hand brakes down? Sure the air bled off. The inbound crews incompetence and the outbound crews lack of knowledge resulted in an event that could’ve been prevented. Another issue.. Has PSR reduced safety in the conquest for higher ROI? So far that seems to be the case…
Here’s an idea. Have (1) the railroads’ risk management folks and (2) their insurance companies, sit down with (3) operations managers and (4) representatives of veteran rank and file T+E crews.
(1) (2) (3) and (4) know better than the government what’s safest.
Another uninformed. Tell me, Braden, just how does one “piss away the air” on a train that was stopped to begin with when the term refers to train crew making too many sets and releases of the air to keep a train under control?
W Cook, you know we have investigators in the U.S. too, right? Ever hear of the NTSB? They don’t complete investigations in a day or 2 either…oh, and your statement that way back when railroads knew the cause within the same day…hogwash, aka BS. As for the broken coupler on the Vancouver Island lumber runaway, yeah, apparently you don’t read the News section here every day…they did explain exactly what caused the problem, but that’s one for you to find yourself.
I’m sure the air was “pissed” away that’s why the runaway occurred.
A conductor or breakman would freeze to death out in -40 degree weather tying handbrakes for no reason. Think about that for a moment. Once again none railroaders telling railroads what to do. Unbelievable
So I guess in CN and CP’s view, taking the time to set hand brakes is considered wasted time in Precision Scheduled Railroading?
“Still under investigation” UNBELIEVEABLE!!! Within 2 to 5 days after the accident how hard would it be to get an identical train with identical power and on a equal cold night do the test of what happened to the death train. But this time be prepared to secure it when it starts to roll away. [have a dozen brakeman ready to wind up 24 hand brakes] The Canadian investigator must be the worst in the world, and have they head inside the turtle shell. Also what caused the “broken coupler” regarding the logging train disaster on Vancouver Island? You never explain what broke, but it killed the railroad as well.
Railroad management used to get their own answer and that was the day it happened. No investigator taking years to drool over their pay checks while they think about it. I repeated a car movement to prove it was not the track, and derailed the cars again exactly in the same manor on normal track. The car department finally accepted that they had a shifted load of lumber when they opened the car door. The re-rerail was easy and worth it.
I am sure that if the rules had been complied with there would have been no incident. Another example of politics overcoming common sense.
The link to the Transport Minister’s order only takes you to his statement that he has issued an order, so we have no detail on why this is considered negatively by CP and CN. How many handbrakes to be applied in proportion to train length? Does the degree of the grade affect this? What are CP’s unspecified “safer options?”