The way the railway industry does business in Canada will betransformed by the Transportation Safety Board's investigation intothe deadly train derailment that demolished the heart of the Quebectown of Lac-Megantic, TSB investigator Glen Pilonsaid onFriday.

In the wake of the crash, the main areas the TSB, anarm's-length federal government agency, is looking at are trainbraking systems, the durability of tanker cars and crew-sizerequirements, Pilon said. Policy recommendations will result, headded.

“I am confident that this will be an investigation that changesthe industry,” he told Reuters by telephone.

The TSB makes recommendations on improving safety, but like theU.S. National Transportation Safety Board, it does not have thepower to impose new rules.

Police believe 50 people were killed when the runaway train ofoil tanker cars, operated by the Montreal, Maine & AtlanticRailway (MMA), jumped the tracks at Lac-Megantic and erupted into awall of fire shortly after midnight on Saturday.

The train had been unmanned, parked uphill from Lac-Megantic inthe neighboring municipality of Nantes.

Shortly after it was parked, a fire broke out on a locomotive,and this ultimately led to the failure of the train'sengine-powered air brakes. But hand brakes were supposed to haveheld the train in place in case of air brake failure.

Pilon said that TSB was looking closely at whether enough handbrakes has been set by the engineer who drove the train toNantes,and who spent 30 minutes in it at that location before leaving forthe night.

“It takes about three minutes to set each hand brake,” Pilonsaid. “We have evidence to support what we believe happened and weare examining the cars, but many of them were destroyed in theincident.”

He said the TSB is also trying to find out why backup systemssuch as the “dead-man pedal”, which is meant to stop a trainautomatically if it is not being manned, did not work.

“It was an older locomotive, so that may be part of it,” Pilonsaid. He said the locomotive was a GE C30-7. That model was builtby a division of General Electric Co, according to severalwebsites. General Electric was not immediately available tocomment.

MMA Railway is permitted to run its trains with only one crewmember, and Pilon said this policy is also being looked at as apossible factor in the crash. MMA Chairman Edward Burkhardt hassaid already that his company would stop using one-man crews as aresult of the crash.

MMA's own safety requirements went “above and beyond” TransportCanada regulations, TSB investigators have found, but Pilondeclined to give details. He said the company's track record beforethe crash was not abnormal in the industry.

“We have had no issues with them that we haven't had with othercompanies,” he said.

He added that while the investigation is now examining specificdetails of the Lac-Megantic calamity, a broader look at thederegulation of the rail industry is likely. “We will look at therole that had to play at some point further along,” he said.

Investigators now have details from the train's “black box andother recordable sources” on the train's speed, brake pressure, andthrottle position. Pilon said the information is not being releasedto the public.

TSB is also aware of when the engineer started his shift, butPilon also declined to share that information.