Rail order is just a first step

A new federal directive issued Wednesday will force railway companies to take steps they, almost unbelievably, did not have to take before: they will have to regularly inform municipalities about the dangerous goods rolling through their backyards.

The move by Transport Minister Lisa Raitt comes after the horrifying rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que., and a series of derailments in Alberta have put the rail industry under the microscope. The directive requires all Canadian railway operators to provide an annual breakdown of the type and volume of dangerous goods that have rumbled down the tracks. Big railways, like Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, will have to display the information quarterly.

Smaller railways also will have to tell municipalities right away if there are significant changes to the nature of goods being transported.

The Railway Association of Canada said it welcomed a formalized method of sharing this information. Many mayors, including Edmonton’s Don Iveson, called it a positive step.

Requiring rail companies to provide information about shipping trends related to dangerous goods makes sense because it will help municipalities make smart decisions about training and equipment for emergency responders.

But in Alberta, where the economy is red hot and billions of dollars of industrial projects are underway, it feels as though annual summaries may not reflect the immediate reality on the railroads.

Some mayors say there still need to be changes to how information flows in a rail-related crisis. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who has been outspoken about the need for cities and towns to know more about the dangerous goods moving through them after two serious rail incidents, called the new directives a “tentative first step.”

Earlier this year, Nenshi criticized CP after eight hydrocarbon-carrying rail cars went off the rails in Calgary in September, requiring 142 homes to be evacuated, and expressed frustration over what he described as an “antiquated paper-based system.” Wednesday, Nenshi told the Calgary Herald that Raitt’s announcement is helpful for planning, “but it’s certainly not helpful for emergency response.”

Likewise, Mayor Jacques Demers of Ste-Catherine-de-Hatley, Que., told the Montreal Gazette that municipalities need to know in real time the type, volume and frequency of dangerous goods moving through their territory.

There is no reason why municipal emergency response officials should ever have to wait for such critical information in a crisis. Some believe the current system, which sees information passed through the Canadian Transport Emergency Centre in the event of an accident, is a good vehicle that just needs to be tweaked.

If that system can be improved so municipal officials are not left in the dark for a minute as to the contents of a derailed car, that is fine. But if it cannot be, then government officials need to go back to the drawing board. Is there a way to create a secure database tracking trains and their contents that top officials can access instantly in an emergency?

Companies such as Walmart have made their fortunes, in part, by using real-time inventory systems and just-in time delivery models. They know what’s in their stores and on warehouse shelves and where their vehicles are at all times.

Rail is usually a safe mode of transportation. But when things go wrong, cities and towns along rail lines should know immediately what kind of dangerous goods they are dealing with.