Fort Frances train derailment caused by lack of track maintenance: TSB report
CBC News | Posted: March 16, 2016 5:44 PM | Last Updated: March 16, 2016
CN says it has “collaborated extensively” with the TSB in its investigation of the derailment
A Transportation Safety Board report cites poor track conditions and maintenance deficiencies as the causes of a CN train derailment two years ago near Fort Frances, Ont. in northwestern Ontario.
The freight train was en route from Winnipeg to Chicago in May 2014 when 35 cars left the track as it approached Fort Frances.
Two of those cars were tankers loaded with molten sulfur, one of which was punctured and started a small gas fire.
The report said the train crew observed a track misalignment and applied various brakes before reaching the uneven track, but the derailment happened when the misaligned track buckled.
Investigators reported the track structure was in poor condition with defective ties, fouled ballast and ineffective rail anchoring.
At the derailment site, the train was operating at just over 80 km/h, on a track that only met conditions for just over 40 km/h, according to the report.
In an email to CBC News, CN said it agrees with the TSB's findings.
The rail company said it "should ideally have implemented the significant track infrastructure improvements it had planned for the Fort Frances subdivision more quickly."
CN noted "the TSB report recognizes several key strengths of the railway's safety management system, including:
- A proactive corridor risk assessment CN conducted on the Fort Frances subdivision prior to the accident;
- The company's multi-faceted inspection process to closely monitor evolving track conditions at frequencies that far exceed regulatory requirements, and
- CN's multi-year infrastructure maintenance planning process that identified the need for a track upgrade program scheduled for 2014 on the Fort Frances subdivision and executed that summer."