Kingston, Ont. train derailment the fourth in 19 years on same stretch of track

Bath Road has reopened to motorists as cleanup continues from a train derailment that happened on Friday.

Cleanup crews have been working around the clock to clear train wreckage from the scene of the derailment near Bath Road.

Only one car remains laying on the side of the tracks, as crews remove its contents, adipic acid — a base component for nylon.

“The one hopper car was in the water, and they were able to finally extricate after being stuck in the mud, somewhat,” says Brad Joyce Commissioner of Transportation & Public Works for the City of Kingston.

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“Once they’re able to get that cleaned out, then they’ll be dismantling that car completely, breaking it apart, and then hauling that off.”

This isn’t the first time a train has derailed on this stretch of track.

In 2020, there were two derailments on the tracks at Bath Road near Queen Mary Road.

Another derailment also happened in 2004 in the same spot, which has raised questions surrounding the safety of this stretch of track.

“I’m certainly aware there is concern, just as I have concern, with the number of incidents that we’ve had on this spur line,” says Joyce.

Joyce says the city will be starting to look into old reports on these derailments following last week’s incident, to see if there is a pattern to these crashes that keep happening in the same area.

“It won’t serve to jump to any conclusions to say there’s a common theme here,” says Joyce.

“It could be any number of things that could have caused this accident. I think we need to wait for the report, and then determine if we’re satisfied with that.”

With cleanup efforts still forging ahead, Joyce says the CN crews should be all finished by the end of the week.

But the job won’t finished then, as CN continues their investigation into the cause of this latest derailment.