10 November 2006
Court Dashes Coal Dust Suit Against CN, CP Rails
Vancouver British Columbia - A court has rejected an
effort to launch a class-action lawsuit against Canadian National Railway Ltd. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. over
dust from their coal trains.
The suit accused the railroads of not doing enough to stop escaping dust and damaging property within 500 meters (1,650 feet) of the
tracks carrying trains from Sparwood, British Columbia, to Roberts Bank on the Pacific Coast, a distance of about 1,200 km (780 miles).
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge refused this week to turn the lawsuit filed by a Kamloops, British Columbia, woman into a
class-action lawsuit, saying it would make resolving individual landowner's complaints too complicated.
Coal traffic is a major business for both railways in Western Canada, with most of it being hauled to ports on the Pacific Coast for
export.
|
