Address dangers of transporting oil by rail

Re More oil moving by rail now than at time of Mégantic disaster, McQuaig, Nov. 22

In Linda McQuaig’s column, in which she reviews my new book, Transport Minister Marc Garneau touts a list of safety measures post-Mégantic.

It’s true that the unsafe tank cars Garneau mentions are scheduled to be phased out, but not for another seven years. Importantly, his government has failed to mandate the construction of specialized tank cars designed to carry raw bitumen, which would be much safer than the current system of allowing insufficiently fortified tank cars to transport the highly volatile diluted form of bitumen. The federal government — unlike its U.S. counterpart — has still not mandated railways to install satellite-based remote control systems to monitor and stop unwanted movements.

Ottawa’s defective rail safety reg- ulatory system amounts to corporate self-regulation. Urgent action is needed to prevent history from repeating itself. Bruce Campbell, Ottawa

Re Alberta vows to buy own rail cars, Nov. 29

We can’t deny Alberta from wanting to move its oil to markets, but there are other unforeseen costs to come.

With more of these longer and heavier trains coming, any older tracks and infrastructure will need upgrading. Who will pay for that? If there is a derailment and spill, who will pay for that? More rail traffic will mean more noise and delays at crossings. Who has to pay and suffer with that?

I hope there is a full assessment done by all levels of governments so we all know what the real costs, benefits and drawbacks are. John Purvis, Colborne John Boynton PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DIRECTORS: John A. Honderich Chair Campbell R. Harvey Martin E. Thall Elaine B. Berger Daniel A. Jauernig Alnasir Samji Paul Weiss Linda Hughes Dorothy Strachan Daryl Aitken John Boynton Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corp.