Train - hazardous cargo "accident"

[Scooby074]

Add to it that Quebec is an independent country inside Canada with it's own language. Rules and regulations vary.

Umm.... no. As much as the separatists would like it to be it isnt.

 

[Soundguy]

. The fact that there's so much conflicting information,

for sure!

 

[Cub 7274]

Transport Canada has the governing authority in Quebec and all other provinces its the same as your NTSB

 

[WilliamBos]

Transport Canada has the governing authority in Quebec and all other provinces its the same as your NTSB

The Feds will oversee this, whether the Bloq likes it or not!!

 

[3930dave]

Actually, the province is self-governed, but it's not an independent country (although they have tried to separate from Canada in the past). As far as the regulatory aspect, I'd be very surprised if the province could do that on their own without the Canadian government's concurrence. Perhaps one of our Canadian members can enlighten both of us.

I don't work in the rail industry, so I may stand to be corrected....... Given history, I believe rail is regulated federally.

That said, federal oversight within Quebec is a politically sensitive area. You can draw your own conclusions as to what impact these factors can have on enforcement. Not saying this was an issue in this case, I don't know either way.

To date, no violations of rail legislation have been cited in this accident. Those significant # of accidents listed in the Reuters UK article I linked will no doubt be reviewed again. Any history of violations will now go under the microscope, including the companies operations outside of Quebec.

As somebody else touched on, the railways in general tend to operate in a universe of their own. That's not quite the way I wanted to put that..... let's just say that after opening up and building most of Canada, the railway has a certain legacy mentality that you don't find in most other transport sectors. Calgary's mayor tee'd off on the major rail company that just about lost those tankers on the bridge in Calgary AFTER the major flood event - he put it a little more politely, but basically he asked on camera "What the _________ were you thinking ?" and went on to question how many company safety inspectors were let go in the recent round of layoffs.

I can see why this guy is a popular mayor.

Rgds, D.

 

[Soundguy]

Actually it would take 15 to 20 minutes to set 10 hand brakes which would be sufficient to hold 72 cars on the downhill end. It is unbelievable it is not regulation or it was and not complied with. This will get messy once the lawyers assemble.

i can't believe it is not SOP...

 

[Cub 7274]

Yes in regards to the Railroads they convinced government to let them police themselves they know what they are doing
As someone said the fox guarding the henhouse

 

[Soundguy]

Yes in regards to the Railroads they convinced government to let them police themselves they know what they are doing
As someone said the fox guarding the henhouse

fox guarding the hen house?

 

[3930dave]

Yes in regards to the Railroads they convinced government to let them police themselves they know what they are doing
As someone said the fox guarding the henhouse

I use the term CorporateGovernment for this reason. On it's own, Rail is bad enough as this disaster has shown, but unfortunately this behaviour is spread across many/most/all sectors.

A number of years back, one Summer, a leading group of Food Scientists (federal employees) dared speak to the media about the erosion of our food inspection sytems. They were immediately all fired. Given the lack of public outrage, things just rolled along as CorpGov intended it to. Fast forward just a couple of years, and XL Foods did hit the media, showing it to be the totally out-of-control mess that these scientists generically warned about.

Predictable, and inevitable. As long as the right people benefit from this (net-net) financially, then these avoidable disasters will continue.

Rgds, D.

 

[tcartwri]

Yes in regards to the Railroads they convinced government to let them police themselves they know what they are doing
As someone said the fox guarding the henhouse

Well, the airlines operate in the same manner.