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Union “encouraged” by emergency directive in Quebec wreck, Canadian premiers discuss rail safety
It’s a sad but normal proceedure…blame it on the hoghead…The company will never admit wrongdoing on their part…Thank God for unions! I knew this engineer when he worked up here in MN on the Soo Line and CP and he was and is a very conscious, rule abidding individual. I’m sure the
t train was tied down properly regardless of what
management claims. A one man crew is not SAFETY FIRST
It’s a sad but normal proceedure…blame it on the hoghead…The company will never admit wrongdoing on their part…Thank God for unions! I knew this engineer when he worked up here in MN on the Soo Line and CP and he was and is a very conscious, rule abidding individual. I’m sure the
t train was tied down properly regardless of what
management claims. A one man crew is not SAFETY FIRST
It’s a sad but normal proceedure…blame it on the hoghead…The company will never admit wrongdoing on their part…Thank God for unions! I knew this engineer when he worked up here in MN on the Soo Line and CP and he was and is a very conscious, rule abidding individual. I’m sure the
t train was tied down properly regardless of what
management claims. A one man crew is not SAFETY FIRST
You really need a minimum of two people on a train since you no longer have either brakemen , car knockers or any maintenance people available. The trouble is the standards they want to apply means someone will have to be on every train that is parked unless you unhook the engine . Remember the wording dangerous goods because flour is explosive and while two unrelated containers of “stuff” may be safe , if the two mix you could have an explosive situation.
What is a " Hogshead "?
The photos look great, but do not tell a story?
Looking a a photo, where is (->N ) north?
What way did the train come from?
What way is the train going?
Agree with he recommendation this is about crew safety.
Try telling the families of the 47 victims that they should " thank God for unions ".
If the unions truly believe in " Safety First " then why didn’t the member employees take action and be proactive by insisting to the management that one man crews did not put Safety First instead of waiting till after this horrific tragedy and Transport Canada mandating it ??
This is not a time for pointing fingers, as I’m sure there is plenty of blame to go around. As far as gloating about the Union at this time, that’s not about any " hogheads ", that’s just plain HOGWASH if you ask me !
The government rules seem reasonable to me.
I hope that the owner of the railroad and his insurance carrier will be able to afford the cost of the wreck in all aspects…property damage and loss of life, in order to continue to be able to operate.
@ROBERT KLIPPEL - I’d say from the fact that the MM&A has one man crews that Unions have pretty much no influence whatsoever over the MM&A’s workings. Most Unions with even marginal influence would prevent something like that from happening.
MR. HARRISON, I respect your opinion concerning the MM&A, but I wasn’t referring to them specifically.
It’s my understanding that the huge Class 1 railroads are known to use one-man crews at times also. I also know that they have left trains unattended, because the crew has timed out.
The crews are certainly union members, but the government had to take the proactive action and mandate the emergency rules to hopefully prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.
The Class Ones generally transport these hazardous cargoes the majority of their miles. Why shouldn’t these large railroads subsidize the much smaller regional, short lines so that they can afford the second crew member ? They can certainly afford to do it with the record profits they are now making. Just food for thought.
Unfortunately for the MM&A, they had the wrong type of train in the wrong location at the wrong time. It was a tragic accident, they certainly didn’t want or expect it to happen.
I haven’t heard yet, but I would expect that the FRA and NSTB will take very similar action in the USA, if they haven’t already. Hope this clarifies things better.