The Canadian Pacific CEO used an interview with Toronto's Globe & Mail, published today, to blast Canada's transportation-safety establishment for its slowness in investigating the Lac-Megantic catastrophe and failure so far to toughen safety standards. "God forbid that something else should happen again while they investigate," he said.
I admit that it's a bit strange to come upon a railroad executive asking for more regulations. Myself, I do not question Harrison's sincerity. I think that what he is trying to do is get in front of a volatile (no pun intended) issue and get establlished new rules, whatever they are. One can easily imagine how chaotic it must be at the U.S.-Canadian border these days when customs agents of either country descend on a crude oil train, customs agents being among the most arrogant of all human beings. The Montreal Maine & Atlantic train that derailed and killed dozens of people in Lac-Megantic, Que., this summer, it turned out, was carrying high-volatility crude oil mislabeled as low-volatility crude, according to investigators. Now customs agents have reason to question the precise contents of every crude oil train.
Also strange about the interview was Harrison's protest that his railroad is required by law to carry crude oil, as if Canadian Pacific would rather not be bothered by the stuff, thank you very much, despite the fact that it is a tremendous boon to revenues and growing by the hour, almost. He said CP has to "haul it by law." I found that remark a bit too much to bear with a straight face.
Meanwhile, as Harrison so aptly said, the wheels of the government bureaucracies are turning slowly on both sides of the border. Transportation Canada is not expected to issue a report on the causes of the Lac-Megantic catastrophe for many months, and a spokesman for the department says new rules will have to await that report to be formulated. On the U.S. side, the Federal Railroad Administration won't act on new rules affecting worker safety and tank car structures until at least next April. In that regulatory vacuum, all sorts of mischief is occurring, Just yesterday the Federation of Canadian Municipalities asked for more information about the contents aboard freight trains headed toward their towns. Can you imagine having to email 200 local fire departments the manifests of every train leaving Moose Jaw and Saskatoon? Whew.
So Harrison says get on with it. "We need to improve tank cars, railroads need to operate better and safer and employees have to obey the rules. . . . We need to focus on not letting this happen again." As for shippers who mislabel the contents of freight cars, Harrison said: "I'd put them in jail. It has got to be a deterrent. If somebody gets a slap on the wrist and $100,000 fine, who cares?" Just imagine, if you can, Mike Ward or Matt Rose or Jack Koraleski going out of his way to say these things. I cannot.--Fred W. Frailey
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