Examining Alberta’s rail safety following Lac-Mégantic tragedy

EDMONTON – The tragic explosion of a runaway train carrying crude oil in Quebec has thrust rail safety into the spotlight across the country. In Alberta, more oil is being shipped by rail, prompting questions of just how safe that practice is, and whether residents have cause for concern.

In February alone, almost 13,000 rail cars in Canada were loaded with crude oil – a 60 per cent increase over the past year. Problems have occurred in the past with some of those shipments in our province.

After a major 2005 derailment and spill near Wabamun Lake, an investigation concluded regulations could be improved. More recently, Calgary’s mayor has joined calls for modernizing regulations following a near-miss in the city a couple weeks ago. NDP MP Linda Duncan is also concerned about the issue, and plans to address it with a private member’s bill this coming fall.

“We’ve got small towns completely at risk, we’ve got large city populations at risk,” Duncan argues.

In Edmonton’s Calder neighbourhood, a concrete wall and a residential road is all that separates Sophie Serafinchon from the CN rail tracks. Even though nothing has happened over the roughly 20 years the Edmonton senior has lived there, she does have one complaint: the noise. And it’s one shared by others in the neighbourhood, as well.

“It seems that they just turn the engine on and have it revving…at god-awful hours of the night,” says Darrell Thompson.

While Thompson understands that trains have to sometimes go through cities, and oil needs to somehow be shipped, he hopes the proper precautions are being taken.

“They shouldn’t have trains going through the middle of town if they’re carrying dangerous things, hazardous materials, where there’s potential for something like that to happen.”

“(The rails) should’ve been outside, not in a city like this,” Serafinchon adds. “But I guess before, nobody was here or something. And that’s how come they built it…there’s nothing you can do.”

Mayor Stephen Mandel says Edmonton has emergency plans in place should a derailment ever occur. He also believes the recent disaster makes a case for pipeline transport, which he thinks is safer.

According to one transport researcher, though, that isn’t necessarily the case. After analyzing 20 years of pipeline and rail data from the U.S., Malcolm Cairns found that when you take capacity into account, the number of rail deaths was similar to pipeline deaths.

“There were only three fatalities in 20 years, in the whole of America, moving this product,” Cairns points out, adding that the figure pales in compares to the 13 killed and many others still missing in Lac-Mégantic.

“This is a catastrophic incident that is just off-the-charts compared with probably anything that’s happened in Canada for 50 years.”

The Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the incident in Quebec. A spokesperson for the ministry of energy here in Alberta tells Global News the government will await the outcome of the Transportation Board’s investigation before commenting on the incident or rail safety.

With files from Laurel Clark and Vassy Kapelos, Global News