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Trending towards a greener society is a must. With global warming on the rise and the environmental impact of fossil fuel emissions, not to mention the damage to the eco-system in Alberta and other domestic production sites, we have to find alternate and more ecologically friendly forms of land transportation.

This naturally leans towards greater usage of rail transport, one of the most ecologically friendly forms of quantitative transport that there is … if the infrastructure is kept up to safe standards and the regulations are followed. We are finding that this is not necessarily the case and as we move towards a greater increase in rail traffic, we open the risk of even greater and immediate dangers than global warming.

November 10 was the anniversary of the infamous Mississauga train derailment, an accident that turned one of Canada’s largest cities into a ghost town overnight when 220,000 people were forced from their homes during a mass evacuation.

Almost 30 years later, is the Canadian public safer and less likely to face another potentially catastrophic train derailment, especially in heavily populated urban areas?

I wish the answer were “yes, we’re safer”, but the numbers suggest otherwise.

Since 1999, there have been almost 10,000 derailments and train collisions in Canada, according to new numbers from the Transportation Safety Board.

That number is mind-boggling: 9,660 to be exact, or an average of almost three per day, every day of the year, somewhere in Canada. Many of them involving lethal, dangerous commodities.

Granted many of those derailments were minor, but hundreds – perhaps thousands – were potentially calamitous, not only for public safety but environmentally, too.

Today, longer, heavier trains rumble through more and more crowded urban areas on track that is not being maintained as well as it was in 1979 when the train carrying 106 cars of explosive and poisonous chemicals hit the ground in Mississauga, just west of Toronto.

The Mississauga train derailment led to stricter regulations for transporting dangerous goods. But paper laws don’t necessarily protect the public if rail infrastructure is imperfect.

Just three weeks ago (October 22), a CN Rail train carrying deadly anhydrous ammonia derailed near Brandon, Manitoba. Thankfully, there was no leakage and the local residents who were ordered to stay in their homes did not need to be evacuated.

The latest worrying trend about derailments that the men and women of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s Maintenance of Way Employees Division who work on the rails have noticed is the abuse that angle bars are routinely undergoing.

Angle bars connect two separate pieces of rail and are not supposed to come into contact with the wheels of passing trains. But they are because heavier trains wear down the top of rails faster.

Angle bar problems are suspected in several Canadian derailments in 2008 under investigation. Perhaps the worst confirmed angle bar incident was in 2002 when a CP Rail train derailed in Minot, North Dakota with tragic results: anhydrous ammonia was released over the small town, killing one resident and injuring more than 300 others.

When it comes to public safety, today’s turbulent economic conditions are not helping, either. Just last month, CP Rail CEO Fred Green announced an “efficiency” program that will mean even more longer, heavier trains will be running to help the railroad weather the economic storm.

However, I believe Mr. Green is losing sight of the fact that lengthening trains and cutting back on track repairs might save money in the short-term, but it’s a costly long-term strategy: every time a train goes off the rails, money is lost. Toss hazardous goods into the mix, and the costs become unthinkable.

Transport Canada is well aware of this new angle bar issue. In response to a letter I sent in June, Luc Bourdon, director-general of rail safety, said angle bars “were not designed for” constant contact with train wheels and “the concern is heightened with the increasing percentage of heavy axle loads being moved year over year.”

Mr. Bourdon commits that Transport Canada inspectors will remain vigilant on the matter, but the fact remains the federal government relies largely on the railroads own reporting to alert public officials to problems.

Recently we uncovered a number of derailments that CP Rail had failed to report to the Transportation Safety Board, even though they were required to by regulation. Though these have now been reported, I have to wonder how many others are out there that we are unaware of and exactly how misleading are the statistics the railways cite concerning the safety of their operations?

The government is not without its share of the blame in all this. The all-party Standing Committee’s report chastened Ottawa for failing to “recognize the importance of rail safety” and argued that more resources need to be brought to bear on the problem.

While the economic outlook looks choppy and government revenues are uncertain, this is one file where Stephen Harper’s newly re-elected government can, and should, make a world of difference for the safety and well being of the millions of Canadian citizens living close to railway tracks.

We do not only need green transportation, we need safe transportation. And both are possible, if the will and commitment are there.

William Brehl is President of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s Maintenance of Way Employees Division, based in Ottawa.

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