Transport Canada Enacts Emergency Rail Safety Rules in Wake of Quebec Crash

Transport Canada announced emergency railway safety rules in the wake of a deadly freight train crash in Quebec earlier this month.

The directive requires rail operators to have two operators on a locomotive attached to loaded tank cars transporting dangerous goods.

The new rules also require rail operators to ensure that no trains are left unattended while transporting loaded tank cars with dangerous goods, that trains are protected from unauthorized access into the cab and that automatic brakes are set when a locomotive attached to one or more cars is left unattended for an hour or less.

On July 6, more than 70 tanker cars carrying crude oil became unhinged at a stop and rolled downhill for about seven miles before derailing and exploding in Lac-Mégantic, about 150 miles east of Montreal and 10 miles from the Maine border, killing 47 people.

The oil was being transported from North Dakota’s Bakken oil region to a refinery in New Brunswick, Canada.