Train Derailments

[weekend_guy]

http://www.slate.com/id/2191702/

A friend of mine forwarded that link to me and asked for my take on the topic as I am in the railway industry...my response is below...just MHO. Curious if there are any other train enthusiasts out there...

More often than not, it's track defects/poor track maintenance that cause a derailment....just imagine the magnitude of the capital costs associated with a company maintaining an entire rail network....trucking companies have their routes paid for by the public...when the CEO wants to show the highest returns possible to shareholders in the short term, long term maintenance programs take a hit.

 

[a 1 player]

I would also add the probably 90% of the track is not seen by the general public on a regular basis. (Like the general manufacturing principle), the more eyes that see the product, the more likely a defect will be found.

 

[james t kirk]

CNR has been cutting its bridge and track maintenance for at least 10 years.

The incident at McBride British Columbia is a prime example of this. The existing timber trestle had been inspected several times by Engineers and deemed to require repairs, yet CN kept defering the repairs year after year until finally a freight train crossing the bridge caused the rotted out timbers to fail and the bridge to collapse killing both train conductors.

Link to the TSB's report:

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/media/communiques/rail/2005/comm_r03v0083.asp

There have also been a huge increase in the numbers of CN derailments in the past few years - such as in Alberta where a train carrying Caustic Soda derailed crossing another bridge into the Cheakamus River, virtually wiping out all life in the river (over half a million fish were killed). Some say the environmental damage will take 50 years to recover.

At the end of the day, CN only cares about one thing - moving its trains as cheaply as possible.

Under their current CEO - Hunter Harrison (a guy who hates Canadians and frequently refers to Canadians as "Snow Niggers") maintenance has taken a back seat to profit. Harrison used to run the Illinois Central Railway, but when CN bought the IC, Harrison came with the deal. At the time, Paul Tellier was CEO of CNR, but he was a lawyer put in charge of CN by Brian Mulroney in order to privatize CNR. Tellier didn't know much about running railways, but he understood politics and cororate structures and he hired Harrison as his Chief Operating Officer and told Harrison to run the railway and he would take care of running the company. Harrison despised Tellier because Tellier was a refined and educated professional whereas Harrison was a "good ole boy" from Tennessee who brags to people that him and Elvis were good buddies.

 

[weekend_guy]

CNR has been cutting its bridge and track maintenance for at least 10 years.

The incident at McBride British Columbia is a prime example of this. The existing timber trestle had been inspected several times by Engineers and deemed to require repairs, yet CN kept defering the repairs year after year until finally a freight train crossing the bridge caused the rotted out timbers to fail and the bridge to collapse killing both train conductors.

Link to the TSB's report:

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/media/communiques/rail/2005/comm_r03v0083.asp

There have also been a huge increase in the numbers of CN derailments in the past few years - such as in Alberta where a train carrying Caustic Soda derailed crossing another bridge into the Cheakamus River, virtually wiping out all life in the river (over half a million fish were killed). Some say the environmental damage will take 50 years to recover.

At the end of the day, CN only cares about one thing - moving its trains as cheaply as possible.

Under their current CEO - Hunter Harrison (a guy who hates Canadians and frequently refers to Canadians as "Snow Niggers") maintenance has taken a back seat to profit. Harrison used to run the Illinois Central Railway, but when CN bought the IC, Harrison came with the deal. At the time, Paul Tellier was CEO of CNR, but he was a lawyer put in charge of CN by Brian Mulroney in order to privatize CNR. Tellier didn't know much about running railways, but he understood politics and cororate structures and he hired Harrison as his Chief Operating Officer and told Harrison to run the railway and he would take care of running the company. Harrison despised Tellier because Tellier was a refined and educated professional whereas Harrison was a "good ole boy" from Tennessee who brags to people that him and Elvis were good buddies.

All true.

When CN bought out IC, a lot of money from the CN coffers went US-bound to upgrade the deteriorated infrastructure under Harrison's watch.

There's a real fear among CN railroaders about the future of Canadian National. The majority of the senior management are Americans and another one is being groomed to take over for Harrison upon his iminent retirement.

All of the canadian rail traffic is being directed south to Memphis via Chicago and staple Canadian rail lines, for instance those in Northern Ontario, will eventually be phased out...rail towns like in the north will become ghost towns.

 

[james t kirk]

All true.

When CN bought out IC, a lot of money from the CN coffers went US-bound to upgrade the deteriorated infrastructure under Harrison's watch.

There's a real fear among CN railroaders about the future of Canadian National. The majority of the senior management are Americans and another one is being groomed to take over for Harrison upon his iminent retirement.

All of the canadian rail traffic is being directed south to Memphis via Chicago and staple Canadian rail lines, for instance those in Northern Ontario, will eventually be phased out...rail towns like in the north will become ghost towns.

That would be Keith Creel. By all accounts a buffoon. And, well, he's Hunter Harrison's son in law to boot (correct me if I am wrong.) When brought into CN to replace Keith Heller, his first action was to request to see all the expense claims put in by CNR senior managers. Boy, there's the kind of guy you want running the show.

Prior to working for Daddy, Keith was in the US marines. How one goes from being a jar head to being a VP at CN is beyond me.

http://www.cn.ca/investor/governance/officers/company_officers/en_InvCreel.shtml

Harrison hates Montreal, hates Canadians, and runs the show from either Chicago, or Jackson (where he has moved most of CN Headquarters.) Harrison is also quite bad for surrounding himself with yes-men. They don't think, they just do what Harrison tells them to do. Most if not all are American, most former US military. Harrison has also forbidden staff to call CN "Canadian" National since that might offend Americans who deal with CN.

Harrison reminds me of George W Bush (constantly borrowing money). Mortgaging the future. There will come a time when Harrison is long gone when the chickens finally come home to roost. All those years of cutting track and bridge maintenance are going to come to a head and there's going to be some really tough times for CN.

 

[hunter001]

I remember seeing a documentry some time back on derailments in Canada. It mostly focused on CN buy BC Rail and scraping the mountain engines and using the regular CN engines instead. The apparently the regular CN engines don't have the same breaking system need for some of the steeper passes causing a few derailments.

They also focused on rail inspector that I think way saying that a section of track need to be replaced, management didn't want to hear him and fired him. Later there was an accident along that section of tracks. (It has been some time since I saw it.)

Here are a couple of links if your are interested.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...0/wfive_trackrecord_070420/20070421?hub=WFive
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...9/wfive_derailments_070209/20070210?hub=WFive

A year and a half after the Transport Canada inspections, the audit report has been made public. The recently released report reveals some shocking information about CN's safety record:

* 54% of locomotives had safety defects
* 37% of locomotives had Labour Code violations
* 50% of train brake tests had safety problems
* 26% of CN Rail Crossings had inadequate sightlines