“Chandler says there is nothing alarming about the state of the rail bed or river bank below”

1. the high water on the river led to some erosion on Wednesday morning

2. Our crews …. have… been providing the necessary repairs to stabilize the river bank

3. the crews continue to monitor the situation.

4. the company will be watching the river level and the possibility of heavy rain through the weekend

So, overall I would say he is right, nothing alarming …. for CN, everything is normal. SNAFU

So let me ask a silly question.

With the rail that close to the river that a less than 40 year high water level can actually cause erosion to the point that one of the tracks is compromised that they have to go to try to stabilize the bank so that the track will not be compromised to a greater degree, why has CN not spent some effort to before another freshette flood to do a more permanent fix?

Sounds to me that CN has some infrastructure problems as well.

Nothing alarming, of course.

The first phrase tha communication officers have to learn and practice, “nothing alarming”, and to apply liberally. ;-)

If that whole bank lets go in a large slide could it back the river up a few feet enough to cause unexpected flooding as the river is held back? That would be alarming IMO.

Not enough material in that bottom shelf to even make a dent in the water level.

We saw 5 years ago what was alarming. We do not even have to imagine it. An oil tanker derailed and caught fire either at the same spot or close to it. Took a call to get an air tanker in to fight the fire that went up the hill. Evacuated areas across the river in case of an explosion.

Same and worse can easily happen with a derailment for other reasons, such as a subsiding bank. Can simply be empty cars and no big deal, or cars filled with hazardous materials and an accompanying big deal.

Do not know if they are still using remote trains there. Might make it less safe.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/6671

Parts of the track on the west side are within 15 metres of the red line 200 year severe flood hazard zone. Near the HWY 16 bridge it is even closer. They put in some rip rap across from Fort George Park. I suspect they should be doing at least the same along the entire length of the bank up to the next bridge.

The vibration from the trains also causes instablility of the cutbanks.

With 20,000 Miles of track across the country, going through mountains, swamps, rivers, deltas, etc; I am sure that CN Rail is aware of what has to be done to stabalize rail trackage.

This type of problem is huge between Terrace and Prince Rupert, and the Skeena River. Similiar problems around Smithers and the Bulkley River.

CN has been operating railways in this area since 1912. Trains running through the Canyon to Vancouver face all sorts of difficulties all the time, and as the flood level gets worse down south, Im sure they will have some more problems.

Im not a big fan of CN Rail, however Im sure that they can look after this problem without to much difficulty.