Quebec Crash Probe to Transform Rail Sector, Official Says

The way the railway industry does business in Canada will be transformed by the Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the deadly train derailment that demolished the heart of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, TSB investigator Glen Pilonsaid on Friday.

In the wake of the crash, the main areas the TSB, an arm's-length federal government agency, is looking at are train braking systems, the durability of tanker cars and crew-size requirements, Pilon said. Policy recommendations will result, he added.

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

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

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

The train had been unmanned, parked uphill from Lac-Megantic in the 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's engine-powered air brakes. But hand brakes were supposed to have held the train in place in case of air brake failure.

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

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

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

“It was an older locomotive, so that may be part of it,” Pilon said. He said the locomotive was a GE C30-7. That model was built by a division of General Electric Co, according to several websites. General Electric was not immediately available to comment.

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

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

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

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

Investigators now have details from the train's “black box and other recordable sources” on the train's speed, brake pressure, and throttle position. Pilon said the information is not being released to the public.

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