Rail Safety Conference Planned

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. -   The Fraser Basin Council is looking to establish a special conference which will examine railway safety.

The Council was formed in 1997 and (according to its website) has a mandate to  “ensure today’s decisions will protect and advance the Basin's social, economic and environmental sustainability into the future.”

The CN crash and derailment in August in Prince George ( shown in photo  above,  photo  Opinion250 archive ) resulted in some diesel fuel being spilled into the Fraser River.  Small amounts of fuel also leached into the groundwater.

 Fraser Basin Council Chair, Dr. Charles Jago says it is hoped the conference will take place within a year “We are hoping to engage CN and CP as part of that, we want to do it collaboratively.  We want to try and find solutions to what is a very significant issue. The number of derailments and spills that we’ve experienced here has raised this in the public mind.” 

Since the derailment  on the eastern bank of the Fraser River in Prince George in August,  there  have been  at least two instances of trains  jumping the tracks in the  rail yard in Prince George, a series of derailments  in Quesnel,  and a derailment  near Terrace  which saw several grain  cars dump their  cargo . 

There are growing concerns that with rail traffic expected to increase, so will the number of derailments. 

(At right, derailment in Quesnel, photo Opinion250 archive)

While Dr. Jago  recognizes there are regulatory bodies to  deal with   the railways,  he says  it needs to go beyond that “Frankly it is an issue  of broad  public concern and we feel the Council is  in a position to try and bring the parties together  and to  address the  complexities  of the subject.”

Dr. Jago  says the Federal and Provincial  Governments  are  giving the Council the nod to proceed “This was potentially an area  where government could say ‘no, this is  our responsibility it is not a broad civic matter and we  would prefer you not to be involved’  but the last meeting we had,  the very clear message we had from both federal and provincial  government  is that this is a broad issue, they would be happy  to work  with us and  they look forward to the conference  and  working with the  broad citizenry to  try to address this issue.”

 Dr. Jago says the attitude of government  on this issue  is  significant,  “Governments  generally  relinquish their jurisdictional authority very reluctantly, but in this case there is a willingness, through the Fraser Basin Council, to  address the issue and I think  it expresses  a degree of trust and confidence  in the way in which  the Council approaches these matters.”

The Transportation Safety Board has yet to complete its investigation into the August derailment, and the final report on the review of the Railway Safety Act has yet to be released. 

Dr. Jago says the conference will take place within a year’s time, and although no location has been selected, he would imagine it would be in the Prince George region.

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