GATINEAU, Quebec — A Transportation Safety Board of Canada review of outstanding safety recommendations found that none of the nine recommendations regarding rail transportation could be considered have been addressed in Fully Satisfactory fashion, the highest rating available. A Fully Satisfactory rating means a course of action has seen the issue eliminated or substantially reduced.
The rail assessments were part of a total of 53 recommendations also addressing air and marine issues. Only two, one in air transportation and the other in marine transportation, were judged to have been handled in Fully Satifactory fashion.
The annual reassessments “show some progress across Canada’s transportation system,” the TSB said in a press release, but the agency says “there has been minimal movement on some key safety issues across all three sectors, which continues to raise concerns from the board.”
For rail issues, action on four recommendations was judged to have obtained Satisfactory Intent, meaning the planned action will substantially reduce or eliminate the issue, but the progress made to date has not been enough to sufficiently reduce the risk. Five others were judged Satisfactory in Part, meaning the recommended action will reduce the problem but additional action may be necessary.
Among the recommendations assessed as showing Satisfactory Intent was the TSB’s work to update regulations regarding employee qualifications and training, as well as auditing of railroad safety management systems. Judged Satisfactory in part was a recommendation regarding fail-safe train controls; the TSB encourages both the Railway Association of Canada and Transport Canada to accelerate efforts to implement enhanced train control.
A full list of the TSB’s rail transportation recommendations, and the assessment of responses to them, is available here.
