9 December 2008
CP Rail Defends Safety Policy, Cites Top North American Track Record
Revelstoke British Columbia - CP Rail is defending their
safety record following a story in the 26 Nov 2008 issue of the Times Review in which President of the Teamsters Canada
Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division Bill Brehl called for increased maintenance and safety measures.
Brehl specifically mentioned concerns about angle bar maintenance in the story. CP Spokesperson Breanne Feigel says, for example, CP
Rail has a comprehensive system to ensure the safety of angle bars - the component that connects two pieces of track. "Any
cracked angle bar, no matter how it's found on our rail system, whether it's identified by an employee under Mr. Brehl's union, or one
of our field-ops guys, or one of our engineers, or locomotive engineers, or conductors that [do] visual inspections when
they're driving the train along the tracks and also inspect trains when they pass each other and meet, is protected and replaced, and
that's as per the Canadian railway track safety rules," she says.
Brehl adds that the bars can develop cracks regardless of whether there is impact with wheels or not. She said members of the
Teamsters union had recently made complaints about specific angle bars, but there were no safety issues found once they were
inspected. "Each and every one of those angle bars that were cited were investigated properly, because that's part of our safety
practices, and there was no specific safety issues found with the ones that were there," she says, adding that it is in
everyone's interest the run a safe rail system, including regular track inspection and maintenance. She says angle bar joints are
specifically inspected four times a year as well, and that automated computer systems also check for flaws in angle bars in separate
checks.
Feigel says that a 2005 review of the Railway Safety Act, and a subsequent report making 52 specific recommendations was being
implemented and that CP was cited for its work on improving safety. "The panel [says]... CP in particular, this is in the report
too, this is a government report, has made great strides in improving its approach to safety management and developing a healthy
safety culture within the company." she says. "We have a huge safety management program and the purpose of that is to keep
getting better at our safety practices. So, mistakes are made, how we learn from them, and how we ensure that they don't happen again,
is a big part of that process."
Feigel disputes Brehl's assertion that recommendations made following a 2005 review of the Railway Safety Act have not been
implemented. "That's not true. The Rail Safety Act committee is looking at implementing these different practices," says
Feigel. She says the report came out in 2007 and CP is following the proper practices and protocols to implement it. She adds that
Brehl is a member of the committee, "so he knows that this work is progressing."
Feigel says CP rail encourages collaboration on safety issues at all levels. "We have a really robust safety management system
and it's a framework that allows and encourages open employee participation and dialogue at all levels."
She also says that a drop in rail traffic in the past quarter due to a slowdown in the global economy puts Brehl's assertion that more
traffic and demand is taxing CP's ability to inspect and maintain railways into question. "But the important thing to note is
that our safety practices are never compromised with increased or decreased volumes of traffic. There are regular track maintenance
protocols that include safety inspections once to twice a week where the track is actually inspected along all of our
subdivisions," she says.
Feigel says there has been a 76 percent decrease in personal injuries in the past 10 years at CP Rail, as well as a 73 percent
decrease in train accidents during the same period.
She says CP Rail has ran the safest railway in North America six out of the past seven years and that safety committees include
management and employees at all levels.
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