Canada Eyes Impact of Long Oil Trains on Railway Track Integrity
The Canadian transportation department is studying the impact of long oil trains on the integrity of railway tracks, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said on Friday. Canadian National Railway Co suffered a string of derailments in February and March, including three along one section of its main route through northern Ontario, and Raitt told reporters research is one response. (Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Canada Unable to Agree with U.S. on Rail Car Brakes
Canada was unable to reach agreement with the United States on whether to require advanced braking systems in new oil tank cars, so the requirement was dropped from a draft of new Canadian tank-car standards, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said. The proposed standards, published on Wednesday, did not include a requirement for electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, but the draft said braking requirements would be included in new operating rules. The United States is expected to release its own standards…
Some Oil Product Spills in Manitoba Derailment
Canadian National Railway Co said Thursday 13 train cars carrying refinery cracking stock, a petroleum product, derailed Wednesday night in rural Manitoba, and one car spilled some of the product onto the ground. The derailment was CN Rail's third in a week. On Saturday, an oil train derailed and burned in northern Ontario while a train hauling empty tank cars that had recently held hazardous liquids derailed last Thursday, also in Ontario. There were no injuries and no threat to the public from Wednesday night's derailment, CN spokesman Brent Kossey said in an email.
Canada to Boost Oil/Rail Insurance Requirement
Canada will boost the minimum insurance that railways will be required to carry when they haul crude oil and will impose levies on oil shipments to build up a supplementary fund to cover major disasters, under a bill introduced on Friday. Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, announcing the legislation, said railroads would have to carry up to C$1 billion ($800 million) in insurance for carrying substantial quantities of dangerous goods. Shippers of crude oil would also have to pay a levy per tonne of crude oil shipped.
Canada Seeks Tightened Marine Oil Spill Plan
Canada moved on Tuesday to strengthen its response plan for oil spills at sea ahead of the development of new pipelines that would sharply increase tanker traffic in Canadian waters if they are built. Among the new measures, the federal government said it would remove a per-incident liability cap on a domestic clean-up fund, which means that all the money in the fund could be made available to clean up a single spill. It also pledged to cover spill costs if clean-up funds were exhausted.
Canada Can Move Faster than U.S. on Oil Rail Cars
Canada has the ability to move faster than the United States in eliminating older oil tanker rail cars that are more dangerous in accidents, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said on Friday. "It really is about making sure that we have an effort that makes sense on a North American basis, understanding what the timeline is in the United States, which is longer than ours. We have the ability to move more quickly in Canada by virtue of our system, and we don't have a prescribed method of rule-making that they do in the United States," Raitt told reporters.
