On Sept. 30, 2008, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) announced the approval of Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of the DM&E railroad. The new owners will take over in a few weeks and assume responsibility to improving the safety of the DM&E railroad.
Yesterday it was announced that Kevin Schieffer has left DM&E to “explore other opportunities”. CP running the railroad has got to make it safer than DM&E management ever did. Right?
The article posted today by a Canadian news pub calls into question CP’s safety record. Several CP union officials have been vocal about CP’s unsafe joint bars and the lack of responsibility CP is taking to prevent a potential safety disaster. The article reports that the wearing of the joint bars and not fixing or replacing them a timely manner could lead to train derailments. Hopefully this is just an oversight on CP’s part, but it brings up concerns on what we can expect as far as safety improvements for CP’s newest railroad, the DM&E.
The Edmonton Journal reported:
Concerns they have raised about joint bars being damaged by passing trains have fallen on deaf ears, they say, and failure to address the problem may have tragic results.
One union official in Alberta called it a disaster waiting to happen.
To me, this is a piece of dynamite and the fuse is halfway burned off,” said Henry Helfenbein, Teamsters Rail Conference Pacific region director.
“We truly feel that there is a concern for safety in general, and I personally feel that it is not a matter of if something will happen, but when.”
One CP union member cites his thoughts on the reason behind the lack of proactive fixing:
“This is an issue of them [CP] putting profits before safety; of them trusting good luck and gravity to keep the trains on the rails,” said Brehl, who represents 3,500 rail maintenance workers. “This is a problem that’s systematic that could be leading to the increasing number of derailments. It’s getting worse and worse every day and they are putting it off year after year. I think it has got to get fixed and it has got to get fixed now.”
Tags: Canadian Pacific, CP, Dakota Minnesota & Eastern, derailment, DM&E, safety, Train Derailments
