[h2]Accident rate on BC Rail line jumps[/h2]
The frequency of derailments along the former BC Rail line is significantly higher since CN took over the former provincial railway last year, government statistics indicate.[/p]The federal Transportation Safety Board says CN experienced 10 main-track derailments along the former BC Rail line through Nov. 3, 2005 -- or about one accident a month compared to just two such incidents for all of 2004.[/p]The five-year average for main-track derailments on the BCR line, through 2004, was less than six each full calendar year, or about one every two months.[/p]The increase in derailments along the BCR line, which was sold to CN in July 2004, comes despite a reduction in the number of trains travelling along the track which serves interior and northeast B.C.[/p]CN is running one long train each day, compared to as many as three shorter ones when the BCR was running the service.[/p]International transportation watchdog group Transport 2000 attributes the increase to CN's recent decision to add more cars to its trains -- a practice that has already drawn the attention of the federal Transport Ministry.[/p]CN spokesman Mark Hallman said CN's own accident statistics, derived from a U.S. system based on the cost of each derailment, show the number of significant incidents has actually declined since it took over BC Rail.[/p]Hallman said CN's safety performance "compares favourably" with the rest of the industry in terms of main-track derailments.[/p]He said that by Canadian Transportation Safety Board measures, CN's national performance is better than the average for federally regulated railways.[/p]Hallman said the railway is not confident that accident numbers collected prior to the BC Rail takeover can be used as a comparison with recent performance.[/p]BCR numbers were collected by a provincial agency whose database "did not have sufficient detail" to compare its accident records against those of the federal safety board, Hallman said.[/p]Nonetheless, Hallman said CN is taking a series of specific safety initiatives nation-wide, including on the former BCR line.[/p]CN has been threatened with a public inquiry by federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre if the railway does not act quickly to improve its safety performance.[/p]That threat came after three derailments in the vicinity of Squamish, including a disastrous chemical spill into the Cheakamus River.[/p]Transport 2000 president David Jeanes said CN's decision to run longer trains is "definitely" a contributing factor to the number of incidents in B.C.[/p][a href="vny!://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e0a65b25-4c05-4942-894a-c8f82a188bee"]vny!://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e0a65b25-4c05-4942-894a-c8f82a188bee[/a]
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You can't run one long train in the mountains. When will CN get the message.
