Bill Lundquist
Rail Safety Directorate
To whom it may concern.
I submitted a letter to the Minister of Transport, Lawrence Cannon in which I expressed my views in regard to the Public Safety concern with CN's epidemic of running off the rails over the past several years. Copy of that letter attached. Recently I received a reply from Mr. Cannon that included a web-site to the Rail Safety Directorate that included numerous articles.
I perused most of these articles but read in full the Final Report-Targeted Inspection of CN Operations, Phase 1 and Final Report-Audit and Safety Management Practices, Phase 2.
In Mr. Cannon's reply he indicated Transport Canada (TC) encourages responses from the general public. So here goes.
I am appalled that this has been going on and getting worse since 2000. This is indicated by the derailments per MTM in the chart in Phase 1. In the reports it states the roll of TC is to promote, monitor and enforce the RSA. It appears to me that the first broken cog in this wheel is TC failing to carry out its' mandate and now seven years later we are having to re-invent the wheel.
My background (explained in attached letter) I believe gives me the experience to respond to this situation. Although the inspection finding risks in phase 1 are mostly rated as low to medium I believe the total of these observations indicates a serious situation, that requires prompt action.
I figure CN is the source of several broken cogs. In evaluating the above reports I conclude that CN has many inadequate procedures, has failed to improve them, allows personnel to short cut procedures and when this is discovered does not take proper Corrective Action(CA), does not provide sufficient training, over extends critical personnel ( track inspector) to the detriment of the system.
I my years of monitoring and auditing quality systems in many different types of companies(ISO) that when the Quality System is not adhered to, it starts to cost the company money for inefficiencies and ultimately result in SAFETYincidents occurring. I believe CN does not dedicate enough effort to None Conformance Reports (NCR) to determine the route cause and implement adequate CA. Never have I seen the use of a verbal NCR as stated.
In thereports TC stated that CN carried out Remedial action. My interpretation of the meaning of remedial in my dictionary is a Band Aid Fix. If TC is allowing this then they should ensure CN follows up with proper CA.
I believe that if strong positive action is not taken with CN that it is only a short time until they have a very serious derailment that is going to cost many lives and perhaps be an environmental disaster as well. If our aviation was as poorly regulated as the railways there would be aircraft falling out of the sky each day, with the loss of thousands of lives. We need a strong comprehensive RSA that is strictly regulated. This is not meant to be a pun but CN is a train wreck looking for a place to happen.
Somewhere in TC regulations it should be mandatory that the TSB make public their findings of Railway incidents.
It has been my experience that if the Quality Manager and the Safety Manager do not have the complete support and backing of top management they cannot do their job. This appears to be lacking in the situation at CN.
For your consideration and I thank you for your time. I do however expect to see strong and positive results from this review with implementation in the next few months and not years.
Regards
Bill Lundquist
14005-121 Street
Edmonton, AB T5X 4H8
5 March 2007
Minister of Transport
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Honorable Lawrence Cannon
I originally addressed this letter to the Hon. Stockwell Day as I thought the situation is a matter of Public Safety and still do but was advised to address it to you.
In this letter I will address my concerns with our National De-railment, CN. I believe the frequency of their incidents should be cause for national concern. If I had that many offenses against my driving record in the past two years I would have had my license suspended. I worry if I am at a RR crossing and am two or three cars back from the crossing, half expecting the train to come apart in front of me.
You will note I call them incidents as there is no such thing as an ACCIDENT unless perhaps it is an act of God. In an INCIDENT there is always a root cause to which responsibility can be assigned.
On several occasions when I was in the Air Force, I was assigned the additional duty of Flight Safety Representative for Ground Incidents involving the aircraft environment. So I have a good background in the safety concept and the processes required investigating an incident.
Recently on TV I saw a government official being asked why the findings of a recent CN incident were not being made public and he replied “because CN did not want them made public” and he could do nothing about it. I can only conclude from that, that CN has something to hide.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigates Aviation and Marine incidents and the findings of these incidents are made public. The most recent I can recall was the sinking of the Northern Queen ferry off the B.C. coast. Does the TSB not also investigate Railway company incidents? If not I think it is high time they did and if required put in place legislation and regulations that require the release of the findings to the public (media) and the full report should be available upon request or on a government web-site. The results of DND Flight Safety crashes and major incidents are made public.
In recent years I do not recall hearing of a CPR derailment but maybe it was lost in the epidemic of CN incidents. I also heard that CN is now over 90% foreign owned?
Ever since I was a kid I always enjoyed walking along railway tracks. I will relate some of my own findings while taking these walks. Near Peers Alberta there is a siding. Twice while walking along there a train stopped on the siding to let another pass and I spoke to the crews. On one occasion I mentioned I had noted some six clips missing in a row that hold the endless rail to the concrete tie. They stated they would report it but that CN only paid Lip- service to safety and did not have enough personnel inspecting the tracks. I do a lot of RVing and often walk railway tracks in the area where I camp. In places where there are still wood ties and the short rails I have often noted spikes well out of the ties and I was able to pull them out by hand and many broken bolts at rail connections. Also I have found pieces off RR cars, pieces of car springs and other stuff I could not identify. By the way I always pushed the spikes back in with my heel. Incidentally I know several other CN employees and they all state that CN does not give a damn about Safety and does not fix reported situations until forced to.
I know you are aware of the seriousness of the Lake Wabamun disaster and I feel it is only a matter of time until CN has a disastrous incident that is going to cost many lives. Are we going to wait until that happens? CN has used up all their tokens and are running on borrowed time.
It is time this Government put CN on a very stringent CLEAN UP YOUR ACT program subject to millions of dollars in fines. Force them to hire additional people where short falls are evident. At no cost to the public. Make that CEO earns his ludicrous salary. It is too bad that in this country, CEO’s and such cannot be sent to jail for knowingly or due to indifference allow known safety conditions to exist. In the U.S. he would probably be looking out from behind bars.
I expect to hear that this government is taking serious action against CN. Also I hope it will not take 8 months until I hear a reply to my concern, like it did last time I submitted a concern to a Minister.
Yours truly,
Bill Lundquist
Cc; John Williams MP