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CP Rail refutes TSB report, says TSB ‘misunderstood key facts’

The TSB released their report on the 2019 derailment yesterday
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CP responds to the TSB report. Nathan Denette photo

CP Rail is speaking out against the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) report that recommend CP Rail address their culture of safety management and risk assessment, which was found to be insufficient by the TSB.

A statement from CP says that the company is ‘extremely disappointed’ over the ‘misrepresented facts’ at the new conference that took place on March 31, stating that they believed that key facts were misunderstood in the report.

CP denied the failure of the brakes and that that the relief crew, original crew and trainmaster collectively agreed on the appropriate steps to be taken in line with existing procedure.

“The TSB has erroneously concluded, based on inappropriate extrapolation of data and unsupported inferences, that the involved-train exhibited poor braking performance,” read the statement.

“As confirmed in the report, the train involved in the incident was fully functional, met all industry standards and passed all regulatory brake test inspections.”

READ MORE: TSB finds fatal B.C. train derailment caused by cold weather, brake failure

The report also called into question several industry standards, such as the effectiveness of the No. 1 brake test, especially on steep mountain grades and cold temperatures that are common on the Field hill. The report recommended automatic parking brakes be implemented and that Transport Canada establish and enhance test standards and time-based maintenance for cars operating on steep grades and in cold.

Years of reports of safety issues at Field Hill failed to be elevated to supervisors and risk assessments were not conducted in order to improve safety, according to the TSB report.

CP will be addressing the alleged inaccuracies with TSB officials directly.



Claire Palmer

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