Friends of the Rail Forum

CN main-track derailments continue to mount this year, and now exceed over 75 - which makes it look like 2009 will be another bad year.

Recently, the most severe mishap involved a methanol train in June – 17 cars derailed as a result of a washout. This occurred near a grade crossing where highway traffic was waiting to cross and several people were injured and one killed when the rial cars burst into flame. The fire was so severe it burned for over 24 hours.

Two other serious derailments occurred in the same month – 17 cars in the middle of another train derailed and went down an embankment, while at the end of the month two inter modals collided when one ran into the back of another during a severe storm.

CN had 103 main-track derailments in 2005, compared to 76 in 2004, and 56 in 1999.

The other major Canadian carrier, CPR had 66 derailments on main lines in 2005, up from 63 in 2004 and 37 in 1999.

Those are quite significant increases for both companies - virtually a 100% increase from 1999 to date for CPR, and almost 50% for CN. Is there an underlying cause? Under-investment in maintenance? Poor safety culture? 100%/50% increase respectively in traffic?

To be honest John I am not certain.

However, I am fairly certain that it is not safety or maintenance related - both lines are very srong ion these areas and there is no question of negligence.

It may be a pure reflection of the magnitude of their operations, the terrain and natural acts. All of the accidents I have read about this year involved natural events - storms, washouts, tunnel collapses, avalanches, rockfalls etc - as the triggering factor.

The operators are huge, with thousands of engines.

Looking just at CN, they employ 22,000+ people in Canada and the United States and have 35,000 kilometres (route kms) of track in Canada and the United States - operates the largest rail network in Canada and the only transcontinental network in North America. The company operates in eight Canadian provinces and 16 U.S. states, spans Canada and mid-America from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

Given all that maybe the number of derailments is not that great!

Anyone else with an opinion?

Thanks, Kevin. Interesting. I agree with you that the total number of derailments probably isn't great given the size of the operation. I'm just interested in the reasons for a 100% increase over ten years.