Mainline rail accidents in 2019 up 42% over 10-year average

The accident rate on Canada’s main rail arteries surged last year, by 42 per cent over the previous decade’s average, says the country’s transportation investigator.

And the number of rail incidents involving hazardous goods last year rose to 169, up from 125 in 2018, while the 10-year average has been 127.

Overall, rail incidents reported to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada in 2019 were 1,246 — 17 per cent more than the previous decade’s average.

There were 72 fatalities involving trains last year, an increase from 58 in 2018 but near the longer-term average of 73, said the TSB.

Fatalities among rail crews in 2019 — five — was more than double the decade annual norm of two, due mainly to a crash near Field, B.C., on Feb. 4 of that year that killed CP Rail conductor Dylan Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-bulmer.

The report was released a day after the seventh anniversary of the fiery Lac Megantic disaster, in which a runaway train carrying crude oil slammed into the centre of the small Quebec town, killing 47 people.

Academic Bruce Campbell, who’s written extensively on the tragedy and train safety, said the TSB’S latest numbers show little progress has been made in improving safety on Canada’s railways.

“We shouldn’t have to wait for another disaster to learn the lessons of Lac Megantic,” said Campbell, adding he’s particularly troubled by the latest dangerous-goods accident figure that’s 25 per cent higher than the 10-year norm.

“That’s really going in the wrong direction.”

According to the TSB, eight of those dangerous-goods accidents involved leakage, double the 10year average.

Campbell noted the derailments of CP Rail trains carrying oil near the town of Guernsey, Sask., last December and then again in February.

Concerns remain over the possibility of a hazardous-goods derailment along the CP tracks that cut through the edge of downtown Calgary.

And Campbell voiced concerns about crew fatigue and an inspection system that’s been increasingly left up to rail companies.

“When you have that relationship (with regulator Transport Canada) that’s a deferential partnership, that’s a problem,” said Campbell.

But he said the increasing volume of rail traffic has also been a factor in those incident figures.

Contributing to the main line accident rate was an unusual number of blazes or grass fires on rail rights-of-way — 42 — that are included in those numbers, said Martin Breton, the TSB’S director of operational services.

“It’s a case of the railways reporting more of those, and those fires aren’t necessarily a big problem,” he said.

A lingering concern, said Breton, is the number of crossing accidents, which led to 28 fatalities last year, compared to 19 in 2018.

“That is persistently high … we are doing research to see if there are trends,” he said.

Recently, the TSB has been urging Transport Canada to take action on safety measures such as deficiencies in the testing of air brakes, a problem that played a role in last year’s Field, B.C., tragedy.

Breton said the TSB is only able to investigate “a small fraction” of occurrences and those of greatest severity.

A Transport Canada spokeswoman defended its commitment to rail safety, saying it conducts about 33,000 inspections and audits a year.

And the ministry is taking steps to reduce train derailments, including those that could include cars carrying flammable materials in urban areas, said Sau Sau Liu.

“The first Ministerial Order requires railway companies to maintain lower speeds in metropolitan areas for trains carrying large quantities of crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas with further mandatory speed reductions everywhere during the winter months,” she said in an email.