Calgary Alberta - Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) is investing in new technology to detect problems on the rails in a bid to avoid future derailments.
 
In an interview, Keith Shearer, CP's assistant vice-president of safety and sustainability, said the technology, which will be deployed in 2020, will be unique among North American Class I railroads.
 
The wayside detection system will use electromagnetic sensors to flag surface and subsurface cracks in rail car wheels.
 
"It's designed to detect flaws in steel before it can cause a fracture that results in a derailment," Shearer said.
 
"It's absolutely new for the industry."
 
The wheel crack detection system is just one of a number of safety enhancements CP said it has been working on for more than a year.
 
The rail company has recently dealt with a string of accidents, the most serious of which was the 4 Feb 2019 derailment of a CP train near Field, B.C., that resulted in the deaths of three crew members.
 
Then, on 28 Feb 2019 a CP train hauling grain and empty automobile carriers left the tracks on the Laggan subdivision just west of the Banff townsite, while a day later, more than two dozen cars of a CP train carrying grain and potash derailed just south of Carlos, Minnesota, USA.
 
Also, in early March, a handful of CP cars carrying diesel and grain left the rails as they crossed a bridge over the Kicking Horse River, though none of their contents spilled.
 
In a Postmedia article a week ago, concerns were raised regarding CP's reaction to safety.
 
Shearer acknowledged this has been a difficult time for CP, and said the company's focus on the accidents and potential causes has been "intense."
 
"I can tell you quite honestly, the last six weeks have been very challenging for us," he said.
 
"We are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that we respond, understand the cause, and then very quickly put measures in place."
 
While Shearer said it is too early to speculate about the cause of the deadly Field derailment (a Transportation Safety Board investigation is still ongoing, as is CP's own internal investigation), he said both the Banff incident and the Minnesota incident were caused by broken rails.
 
He said while there are regulations in both Canada and the U.S. that establish minimum track testing frequencies, CP already exceeds those minimum thresholds, and added 26 additional track inspectors in 2018.
 
The company also has 17 dedicated rail flaw detection trucks that search for internal rail defects across the network.
 
The company has also added "cold wheel" technology to help identify the braking effectiveness of rail cars on trains to target them for more inspections and repair if warranted.
 
Shearer said cold weather makes all types of railroad equipment and processes more prone to failure, and this winter has been a particularly brutal one.
 
"I can't honestly say that I've seen a winter as challenging as this one has been in terms of prolonged cold temperatures," he said.
 
Days after the fatal Field crash, in which the train had been parked for two hours with its air brakes engaged on a grade when it started moving on its own, Transport Canada Minister Marc Garneau issued a ministerial order for all railway companies to use hand brakes when trains are halted in an emergency stop on a mountain grade.
 
CP, along with Canadian National Railway (CN) and the Railway Association of Canada, is appealing that order.
 
Shearer said CP believes the excessive use of hand brakes could actually be a safety risk, because it would increase the amount of time that the train is on the mountain grade and increase the amount of time that employees are exposed to the elements while applying those hand brakes.
 
"We need to make sure that we get this right, and we don't believe that what's been proposed is the safest course of action," Shearer said.
 
CP has also been criticized by some observers who have suggested that the 112 car length of the train involved in the Field crash was too long, given the cold conditions that day and the steepness of the grade in question.
 
Shearer said while CP constantly monitors train length and shortens and adjusts where necessary, modern railroading technology makes it easier to control longer trains by situating locomotive power at different locations, instead of just at the front.
 
"Operating a train with distributed power is actually easier to operate than a shorter train that only has locomotives on the head end," he said.
 
"There's not a safety concern with that."
 
Author unknown.