It is odd that so many on this site love to unreasonably pick on CN. No one in their right mind believes CN could blow up anything any more than any other transportation sector is capable of. I expect some goof ball is going to post that the airport expansion is bad because one day a big plane is going to hit the Royal Bank building and bring it down. Well, only if CN is operating the plane I guess, Ha ha!

No one even noticed that while CN was sorting out their mess that Highway 16 West was blocked at Jensen Road because a tractor trailer carrying a backhoe came apart on the highway! That is also the same spot a man and his wife were killed while trying to turn on to Jensen Road.

Or how about the truck carrying diesel that lost it's load just off the Cameron Bridge a few years ago. A truck carries 38,000 liters and the train carries 50,000 liters, oh my goodness the trains are worse! HeeHee!

I don't think any accidents are acceptable, but CN is not any greater threat than the lack of proper roads that are killing off a dozen tired logging truck drivers every winter. Now that is bad and sad!

Why not thank CN for the harmless fire, the great airshow demonstration and all the excitement? Great harmless entertainment and a make work project. Plus the "e" people can now apply for all sorts of money in order to Save the Town the next time. HeeHee!

Sounds like you really have a burr in your pants for the "e" people. Maybe you would like to expand your description of the "e" people for all those readers who don't really understand who it is you are referring to.

And while you are at it, provide some reasons why you have such a low opinion of them? They are necessary in my opinion and I appreciate them when I am in need, or not able to help others in their time of need. What's your story? Chester

Well, if nothing else there is consistency to the continued confused rantings. Perhaps it is just the work of a bored individual who likes to say white when the picture is clearly black. I used to have a C.B.Radio back a few years ago and there are plenty of individuals with so little to do in their lives they would go on the radio and spew garbage like we often see here. The intent of this garbage was to try an goad individuals to try and get an argument started over the radio so they could taunt from a safe distance. Sad, but a reality. The answer is to ignore the crap and stick to useful and constructive comments. Pretty sad that some are so lonely they have to make this stuff up. Perhaps a puppy might bring some relief to their lives? Then again better not, given the quality of the human being it would be endangering the puppy!

Not that this was directed at any one individual of course.

Every rule and regulation governing derailments on trains in Canada is in place and have been in place for years.

There will be an investigation to determine cause and then the Railway will continue to carry on with their business. We here in Prince George may think we will have some influence on this situation, however the CN Rail has 55000 miles of track throughout Canada and the USA, and most of it at one point or another runs through Citys and Towns.

That is the reality of Railways. It is highly unlikely that the Railways would start to relocate outside the Citys in remote areas. (Yes Prince George is a remote area)

These trains run right through Prince Rupert, Terrace, Smithers, Burns Lake, Prince George, Hinton, Kamloops, etc; etc;.

Rather than relocating the Railway it is more likely that they will have to get serious about the handling of trains and dangerous commodities through the Citys. Perhaps there should not be any switching by remote control, as this seems to increase the possibility of accidents. The switching by remote, and a number of other practices over the years was mainly to decrease manpower, and therefore increase profits. However as usual these high paid CEO's went to far in reducing experienced manning, that they are now in the process of having some of the work done by (trained) management personel.

If you are hired out to CN Rail as a salesman for instance, and then they send you to Saskatoon or some other place to work as a trainman or switchman, you would not be a very happy employee. This is really no different than when you go into a grocery store and you see the Manager bagging groceries because he has no staff available to do the job.

These moneymongers who bastardis jobs and reduce moral to its lowest level to make a few paltry dollars for two bit stock investors, are the real cause of the problems in this country.

CN Rail makes billions of dollars a year in profits, and their CEO get paid $48 Million per year. A lot of their profits are made through predatory pricing, monopolistic structure, and cutting corners. If the CEO's salary was reduced a percentage point for every serious accident that occured, these accidents might start to decline.

Without a solid infrastructure, well trained employees, and honest management you cannot expect to run a good railway, or any other business. The chickens have come home to roost.

"e" people = Emergency Personnel. You know all the ones that show up to herd goats and generally make more of the situation than it warrants. I don't have anything against the "e" people at all. I have been their driver or assisted them all too many times over the years to have anything bad to say about them. And I don't think it is a bad thing to say that they are generally just entertainment though.

Familiarity can breed contempt, but I wouldn't go that far. The "e" people are nice people, just way over rated.

So don't be chicken folks, look around and think for yourself a little bit, your life could depend on it one day. Perhaps I think a little different than mainstream because the urban support structures and safety nets were missing in my work environment. Total self reliance and calculated risk taking is the game of the day. Question everything and test it. The retards on my side of the tracks never made it to retirement age.

One comment has been removed. Please, refrain from name calling, let's stick to making our comments on the story at hand, or points presented by other commentors.

-Elaine Macdonald

Well Yama if they kept crashing planes they might look into that too...
Something isn't right...no other transportation sector could have these many accidents and not be investigated...
so I think an investigation is warranted...lets find out if they are doing things right, in which case we can all relax or they are doing things wrong, in which case maybe we can get some peace of mind when things are fixed...
the "NO HARM, NO FOUL" statement from CN is getting a little thin....

I have been unable to find a nice, simple site somewhere which provides statistics such as the following:

• Annual number of incidents per 10,000 tonne-kilometres of freight handled by: aircraft; trains; trucks; ocean and inland waterways ships.
• Annual cost in lives (whether directly involved or “collateral damage”) due to the incidents
• Cumulative annual cost in damages to the shipper and others due to incidents.

One of the indicators might be insurance coverage if the carrier is not self insuring. How much insurance does the carrier have to pay per 10,000 tonne-kilometres of freight handled. That ought to show how risky the system is.

The question is a matter of risk. Risk is a ratio for the probability that there will be an incident multiplied by a factor for the consequence of the incident.

Thus there is a certain risk of an incident such as a derailment involving one train which would have to do with factors relating to type of trackage (combination of vertical and horizontal curves, for instance), speed, track monitoring and maintenance, etc.

The consequences of a derailment would depend on things such as track location (bridge, adjacent steep slope, surrounding population base, type of goods carried, etc.)

As a resident of this community, I would like to see a risk analysis of the three key types of transportation systems we are exposed to and the probability of residence in certain locations being affected by the three systems. That risk should vary depending on where one lives in PG.

It is the type of analysis which the infamous e-people should have at their fingertips since it is as a result of such analysis that the various carriers should be visited by those infamous e-people to advise them that they are not doing their job, or tell them that they are doing an exemplary job and they really need to show others in the country who are not doing such a good job, how it is done properly.

So, folks, does anyone think here that anyone of the infamous e-people, or our City staff or Council or MLAs or MPs or whoever is supposed to be looking out for the welfare of the people in the community have any inkling of what risk people residing in different parts of the community are facing and how that risk compares to that of people of other communities.

To me, that is the real question. I doubt we will get an answer to that question.

While I am disgusted at the lack of response by our M.L.A.'s and Mayor, I would like to give credit where it is due. I saw an individual run up to the burning rail car, (loaded with lumber), and courageously uncouple the remaining lumber cars from the wreckage and then run away like the wind once the cars were moving. I would like to thank this individual, (as well as the other person who uncoupled the smoking tank cars), Their efforts likely avoided this accident from being even worse than it was. I hope that the courage shown by these individuals and all those who worked to maintain safety, in a ridiculously dangerous situation, can be matched by our elected officials to represent the best interests of their constituents. However, from what we have seen from our M.L.A.'s in the past, an act of courage seems to be beyond their professional abilities.

I did not see that, but heard something like that and support you, REALIST, on your accolades to those who go through heroic efforts.

That being said, it is interesting that in this day of relying on technology, there has not been a failsafe uncoupling mechanism found to do through remote means what had to be done mechanically. You would think that a device could be invented for which the default is the lock position that could be remotely unlocked without further compromising safety due to failure of the device when in use.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5531337-description.html

I certainly hope those fellows from CN that uncoupled those two cars weren't being hero's. The timing should have been when the fire was stable and the route carefully thought out and escape planned. It's no different that fighting a wild well fire. Think, calculate and plan.

Nobody needs to pull some dumb ass stunt at this stage of the game.

I'm curious why REALIST believes the MLA or Mayor has to run into that burning mess to show they are courageous? Seems kind of silly to me.

However I grant it might be entertaining watching the Mayor and MLA running up and down the road with a bullhorn hollering at people to run for their lives, HeeHee!!

The powers that be should be "heroes" in a different fashion. They should ask some of thetypes of questions I am asking. If they know the answers, then they should tell the population what they are. Simple, for someone who knows how to do it. Same us those who uncoupled the train.

Hero is simply someone whose perception of risk of doing something is less than the average person's perception of the same action. Some have a lower perception of risk because they simply do not know what the risk is. Others have a lower perception of risk because they are very knowledgable and well trained and do actually have a lower perception of risk based on capacity rather than ignorance.

Do we know which of the two it was in this case?

BTW, accident rates in the oilpatch are skyrocketing. Probably too many newbies or people in too much of hurry.

I think you might find the answer to some of those increases being directly tied to the removal of government safety standards and those needed to enforce what is left with respect to rules. Part of the neo-liberal ideology is the destruction of as many government controlled agencies as possible with the misguided belief that government should be downsized as much as possible. Canada is only now starting to see the results of this ideology which supports financial gains against safety. Less conservation officers, less Workforce investigators, fewer environmental investigators etc. Canadians are just now starting to realize just how destructive these politicians have been to the Canadian way of life. Certainly England has awakened to how there leaders have sold them out in the name of the mighty dollar. The Americans are starting to get it with their collapsing infrastructure and leaders who have been revealed as greed mongers and not for the people. As I heard in a movie recently,"Governments should fear the people, not the people fear the government". C.N.'s sale was the result of a direct tie to neo-liberal ideologies. We can now live in a certain amount of fear regarding the collapse of safety in the transportation industry. Marginalized people live in fear of this governments next cruel move in the name of "fiscal responsibility" The more educated you become regarding the results of neo-liberal destruction the more you will come to fear the decisions they make. Thus, yet again we have it backwards and we fear our leaders instead of them fearing the voters. This is why our electoral system does not work anymore and we are slowly being enslaved. I'm sure that this type of honest talk will confuse some of the more ridiculous posters here but, for those able to think for themselves this should be about the ten thousandth wake-up call.

I should add that I hold the majority of posters here in high regard and thus, I hope that the comment about ridiculous posters will be taken with a wink and a nod.

"..neo-liberal ideology.." Heehee!

Neo-NDP ideas. HaHaHa!

Like many of these privatization schemes one should ask if in real world facts:
Does the efficiency savings resulting from privatization exceed the profits needed to satisfy investors for their capital investments?

If so are these efficiencies generated by cutting safety, environmental, and employee considerations? Are these a fair trade off for privatized profits?

By weakening society in favour of the private monopolies the neo-(insert political party) ensure job security for their politicians as long as the genus of our political system is designed for party power from the top down.

IMO the BCSTV, as per the BC Citizens Assembly, should be the new ground zero for democratic renewal that forms its genus in electing politicians of the people, for the people, through a system designed and implemented by the people. Not a system of and for the vested interest lobbies.

Using the BCSTV as our new democratic beginning under BC's first legitimate democratic government a new constitution should be formed that lays the foundation of a government of and for the people by the people that could be used as a template to enlighten the rest of Canada to step up to real democracy and away from the current bastardized constitutional set up that has its long term moral authority diminishing with age due to the foundation of its authority being not based on a wholly clean process that was mostly accountable to undemocratic historical characters.

The neo-'s of all parties will oppose this because neo stands for top down authority which is extreme to the silent majority, and their power is based in a system designed by and for the neo agenda.

Complaining about what CN did is pointless, because they are our government through the system. We need to change the system and make the government one of its citizens and not one of its elites, multinational campaign contributors, and electronic vote counting machines.