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CP changes operating practices ahead of Transport Canada directive
In the past CP has been the safest railway in North America. I’m wondering if that is still the case under Harrison?
It appears to me that CP Rail may very well be the safest in North America and I applaud them under the leadership of E. Hunter Harrison for taking these steps in the right direction and I hope they will consider additional steps in that direction. The tragedy at Lac Megantic must never never be allowed to happen again, PERIOD !!
I still see no mention of setting derails so that a train will go off the track before it gains any substantial momentum. I have seen ads in “Trains” for portable derail devices, so I assume they do work.
With regard for the comment about safety under Harrison, the employees are the ones who ensure safe operations even if a higher authority wants to cut corners.
Forgive my ignorance, but why is parking a train on a siding safer than on the main line. If the switch back to the main is spring loaded, it would hardly stop a runaway.
Quite shocking these changes in the operating procedures. Unbelievable to leave a unattended train with a unlocked locomotive. Setting brakes is to prevent the train from moving. Period. In any business professionals somewhere seem to start to make shortcuts regarding safety procedures. Just don’t!!! Whats to gain by doing that? Korean airlines: how stupid can 2 professionals in a cockpit act as a team. How difficult can it be to secure a train. Leaving it on a slope: what were they thinking? A little bit of brake should do the job? A heavy train even on the slightest slope will be subject to a formidable force downslope. Use any means to prevent it starting to move or park it elsewhere. And make sure no one can unlock those brakes.
Derails? The ones you see advertised in TRAINS would probably break when impacted by a set of locomotives. I’ve seen single cars both derail AND break those things no problem at all. It would be better to have a SPLIT RAIL derail in place. That would REALLY work best. But then install it (its basically a switch) maintain it, hook it up to some power operated machine in TCS territory? THAT list goes on against using that.
Now lets see, hand brakes? Make sure no unauthroized people take them off? I am open to suggestions on that, short of locking EVERYTHING up.
Locking the locos. now THATS a good idea!
The easiest thing here would have been to have a relief crew take the train onward but MM&A didn’t seem to do that did they?
One more thing…how did those brakes bleed off? I’ve seen cuts of cars set on a track in the yard with air on them STILL have air on them after a month! How can that many cars bleed off that quickly? Someone in the loco cab released the brakes???
This accident would appear to have been totally preventable. Single manning of a train carrying hazardous cargo all in the name of squeezing out the very last dime in cost and profit for the railway has resulted in Government and community confidence being shaken to the core. If you can’t make money out of an oil train carrying 8000 tonnes or so of product by having to resort to eliminating a second train crew member or using a mobile operations guy to help secure the train then there is something wrong with the economics of this business.
Why is it that the gentlemen from out of this country (Australia and Netherlands) seem to understand the circumstances and solutions better than most of us do.
When you’re dealing with hazardous cargo, even a deliberate, minor, slow derailment of a single car should be unacceptable, because it would be unpredictable, especially when involving a unit train.
We must never forget the human lives that were taken in this horrific tragedy and we must insure to the best of our ability that it never happens again. God Bless !! to the families and people of Lac Megantic.
Will at least two men in the locomotive cab be required?? Allowing one man to run an oil train is idiotic!
Will at least two men in the locomotive be required?? Allowing one man to run an oil train is idiotic!
Will at least two men in the locomotive be required?? Allowing one man to run an oil train is idiotic!
Will at least two men in the locomotive cab be required?? Allowing one man to run an oil train is idiotic!
Duplicate comment are still happening,on this page(1) there are
duplicates of the same two comments.
There are 2 from J.W.Shannon in PA.,3 from Mr.F. Amann in AZ., on page 2 the same comment from Mr. F. Amann in AZ. is on the top of the page all of them are only a few seconds apart in the respective time stamps on their postings.
Why aren’t this duplicates being caught and removed?they only serve to inflate the count of the number of comments on an article,whom ever is in charge of this needs to get on the ball and do their job right.
Long time ago PRR dse two switches at end of Double track to single track, then a train could not run though a switch unto the main, Then in Amtrac days, the extra switch was removed, Then an engineer run though the signal and switch and this resulted in a major collision outside Baltimore.
Also the Airlines do not dispatch Airliners with one man crews. Why Railroads, Now a passenger Engineer on a single man crew was distracted with a call concerning clearances and missed a slow down order in Europe. How far will cost-cutting go,
Long time ago PRR dse two switches at end of Double track to single track, then a train could not run though a switch unto the main, Then in Amtrac days, the extra switch was removed, Then an engineer run though the signal and switch and this resulted in a major collision outside Baltimore.
Also the Airlines do not dispatch Airliners with one man crews. Why Railroads, Now a passenger Engineer on a single man crew was distracted with a call concerning clearances and missed a slow down order in Europe. How far will cost-cutting go,