Rail safety effort worthwhile

Re Tory and councillors press feds for tougher rail safety measures, April 4 Kudos to John Tory and the 17 Toronto city councillors for their unprecedented attempt to coerce federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt to take stronger rail-safety measures in order to safeguard citizens’ lives and well-being. It is key for all the major stakeholders to work closely together in pushing for the implementation of tougher rail transport safety measures.

Despite some of Ottawa’s efforts to improve Canada’s rail safety, citizens deserve greater transparency. They especially need adequate information about the types and amounts of dangerous goods travelling through their neighbourhoods.

Since a significant factor in both derailments in northern Ontario proved to be faulty tracks, the Safe Rail Communities citizen group’s timely suggestion for the hiring of more track inspectors will certainly be a case of money well spent.

As my family and our neighbours suffered considerably from the Mississauga rail disaster in 1979, we are understandably wary about the rail safety promises made previously but not fully implemented. We sincerely hope that Lisa Raitt will take every possible measure to bolster rail safety. Rudy Fernandes, Mississauga This is a step toward protecting Torontonians from a potential rail disaster. A next step will be to ensure that no diluted bitumen or Bakken crude oil (or any other hazardous substance) travels through Toronto by any means, including rail, pipeline, truck or ship. Public pressure is increasing on Enbridge to not bring caustic and explosive oil through Line 9 (built to transport natural gas, not bitumen). Line 9 passes within inches of the Bishop St. entrance to the Finch subway station. Imagine the result if an oil leak reaches the electric third rail in the subway. Kate Chung, Toronto