Are we safe?

More than 20 trains pass through Rainy River, Emo and Fort Frances daily to cross the bridge at Ranier to begin travelling south to Duluth, Minneapolis, Chicago and down to the Gulf of Mexico. Over years with modern technology those trains have grown in length and now stretch for over three miles.
The major cargo carried by those trains has changed dramatically in the last four years too. They once handled almost exclusively lumber, grain and cargo containers. Today, oil tanker cars are making up almost one half of the train cars and are filled with crude oil.
Lac-Megantic might be almost 3,000 km away, but the report of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada should be troubling to all communities with rail lines passing through them. The Safety Board placed a great deal of blame on the operator of the rail line.
The report released yesterday placed considerable blame on Transport Canada for failing to recognize safety problems. Transport Canada simply failed to audit the safety procedures that the railway was expected to follow.
Rrecommendations aimed at preventing a similar accident have been put forward in the report. The recommendations call for enhanced protection standards for Class-111 tank cars. More testing is required of crude oil liquids being carried to ensure that it is properly classified.
Since the accident, in the interim, Transport Canada has put in new safety standards for certain tanker cars, requiring railways to slow down trains and develop emergency response plans for trains carrying crude oil and other dangerous goods.
Oil shipments are expected to triple between now and 2016. Oil unit trains are expected to begin travelling North America from the oil sands and Bakken fields.
We will see those trains passing through here, on their way to refineries in Eastern Canada and the United States.
With the addition of a third track adjacent to housing in Fort Frances, residents and the community should seek reassurance that CN is meeting or exceeding all the recommendations. Every town in the district should have copies of the plans dealing with rail oil car disasters should such an event occur in Rainy River District.