When Melanie Loessl got a call from a friend on Feb. 6 that another oil train had crashed and burned near her community, she thought it was a joke.
Not two months earlier, she’d been forced to flee after a different Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying crude oil jumped the tracks and exploded near her home, just west of the hamlet of Guernsey, Sask.
Now, the entire community was facing evacuation.
“I was just like, ‘Oh, my God. Not again,'” said Loessl, a local potash mine worker.
“Once it happens twice in a row, it’s kind of scary.”
Melanie Loessl watched as a Canadian Pacific Railway oil train burned near her home just west of Guernsey, Sask., on Dec. 9, 2019. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
A CBC News investigation has uncovered years’ worth of Transport Canada inspection reports documenting hundreds of safety problems along the Saskatchewan rail line, none of which prompted orders for trains to stop rolling.
What’s more, since the 2013 rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que., that killed 47 people, there have been seven major derailments of crude oil trains in Canada. In each case, investigators blame broken track.
Experts who reviewed the CBC’s findings say the documents suggest the government regulator, Transport Canada, is failing to properly oversee rail companies and ensure the safety of hundreds of communities along the country’s vast rail networks.
‘Neither derailment was a surprise’
CBC News obtained five Transport Canada inspection reports from 2016 to 2020 for the CP line that stretches 183 kilometres from Wynyard, Sask., through Guernsey to Saskatoon, the province’s most populous city.
The reports detail hundreds of problems found by inspectors: 131 “non-compliances” and 215 “concerns,” including missing or defective railway ties (the wooden planks anchoring the track) and broken joint bars (which connect two long pieces of rail).
Ian Naish, a former director of rail investigations for the Transportation Safety Board (TSB), which investigates rail crashes, reviewed the inspection reports for CBC News.
He says the Saskatchewan track was in “really bad shape.”
“That’s an awful lot of non-compliance reports and concerns, and it looked like they were consistent over the three or four years,” Naish said.
“Neither derailment was a surprise at all.”
The government department that regulates and polices rail companies is Transport Canada.
During May and August of 2019, Transport Canada inspectors found more than 200 issues, including a defective piece of rail just hundreds of metres from where the second oil train derailed and blew up near Guernsey.
The documents detail CP’s plans for corrective action. Transport Canada says CP made “all necessary repairs” to defects found in 2019.
CP says its Saskatchewan line “has and will continue to be properly maintained,” noting the company spends hundreds of millions of dollars on annual maintenance.
Track issues ‘all too common,’ government says
While acknowledging “track issues remain an all too common cause of main track derailments,” Transport Canada insists it runs a “robust” oversight program.
“The non-compliances found during the track inspections in May and August 2019 were considered minor as CP Rail was able to mitigate the safety risk by temporarily reducing the maximum allowable speed along the tracks until repairs were made,” a government spokesperson said in an email.
And yet, two trains derailed and exploded on that very track, spilling a combined 3.1 million litres of crude oil and prompting the people of Guernsey to evacuate their homes.
The Transportation Safety Board says it suspects broken rail as the cause of both crashes.
The second derailment, just east of Guernsey, Sask., produced enough black smoke to prompt the community’s evacuation. The Transportation Safety Board says it suspects broken rail is responsible for both crashes. (Philippe Gaudet)
Heavy loads on the rise
Jack Gibney, the reeve for the municipality that includes Guernsey, wonders whether CP shouldn’t have foreseen the track issues, given the dramatic increase in oil shipments.
“The last couple years, it’s probably three times the amount of traffic we’re used to. Trains a mile long,” he said. “You can’t expect to put that much traffic over a rail line and not do the proper upkeep to keep it safe.”
In fact, CP’s loads of crude oil along the line southeast of Saskatoon have increased sevenfold since 2017, according to the Transportation Safety Board.
A Canadian Pacific Railway truck is parked at the site where a second train derailed near Guernsey on Feb. 6, 2020. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Rob Johnston, the head of the board’s rail operations for Central Canada, points to two Canadian National Railway oil trains that derailed in early 2015. The crashes happened within 11 kilometres and three weeks of each other near Gogama in northern Ontario.
CN reconstructed large sections of the track to handle heavier loads and hasn’t had a crash there since, Johnston said.
“That speaks volumes to what needs to be done here,” he said of the Saskatchewan track.
In Guernsey, on the heels of this winter’s explosions and spills, CP is now replacing a large span of track. The company says it has also added 11 of its own new inspectors across Canada where crude trains operate.
WATCH | We flew a drone over CP’s repair work in Guernsey:
In and near Guernsey, Sask. 0:40
‘Chronic problems’ met with no sanctions
There have been seven major oil train crashes in Canada since Lac-Mégantic: the two in Guernsey; the two in northern Ontario in 2015; plus one in St. Lazare, Man.; and two more in northwestern Ontario.
No one died, but five of the crashes happened within a few kilometres of towns and villages.
Six of the seven resulted in spills, releasing a combined 8.4 million litres of crude oil.
In all cases, the Transportation Safety Board blames track issues.
The seven derailed oil trains spilled a combined 8.4 million litres of oil. (CBC)
Naish says it shouldn’t take so many disasters for the government to act, pointing to the “chronic problems” found on the Saskatchewan line and the lack of fines or train shutdowns ordered by Transport Canada.
“Sometimes regulators have to drop the hammer [on railways],” Naish said.
In Saskatchewan, “there was all kinds of opportunity for regulatory action before the accidents actually occurred,” he said.
‘Tighter controls’ over industry needed, TSB warns
In March, the TSB issued two rail safetyadvisories warning Transport Canada to overhaul the track safety rules for routes that carry heavy volumes of dangerous goods.
“We’re asking them to put improved standards and maybe tighter controls,” Johnston said.
Transport Canada responded in April by issuing threeministerialorders. They instructed railways to improve the quality and frequency of track inspections.
The federal regulator also called on rail companies to develop and revise new track safety rules.
But that’s a problem, according to Bruce Campbell, a professor of environmental studies at York University who wrote a book on the Lac-Mégantic disaster.
“The government touts its rigorous regulatory practices, but in reality, risk management is left to the companies,” he said. “In an ideal world, Transport Canada would have the science and the resources to independently evaluate and revise the rules itself.”
After the 2013 Lac-Mégantic catastrophe, the government and railways adopted tougher safety measures for shipping dangerous goods, including redesigning oil tanker cars.
Yet derailments and spills keep happening, Campbell said.
“Guernsey dodged a bullet,” he said. “What happens if the next time it’s in a large community like Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver or Winnipeg?
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
