Digest: Canadian short line train derails after reported runaway

Ontario short line train derails, demolishing vehicles, shed
A reported runaway situation led to the derailment of a Goderich-Exeter Railway train on Monday in Goderich, Ontario, CTV News reports, demolishing a tractor-trailer, pickup truck, and shed before coming to a halt. An officer of the Ontario Provincial Police told the news station the train’s two locomotives were moving 14 cars uphill from a grain elevator when they began rolling back downhill, crashing into the two vehicles and the shed before coming to rest near the elevators. “There were two people inside the pickup truck at the time,” Constable Jamie Stanley told the station. “Very fortunate for them, they both escaped injury.” First responders from the Goderich Fire Department helped free the two people from the truck. Ten to 12 cars were reported to have derailed. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is conducting an investigation. A representative of Genesee & Wyoming, which owns the railroad, told the CBC the company is assisting in the investigation.

Iowa ethanol plant wants to build line to connect to CN, crossing UP main line
An Iowa ethanol plant has filed a request with the Surface Transportation Board to build a 2.3-mile rail line to connect to Canadian National, ending its current sole reliance on Union Pacific service — although the new line would require a diamond crossing of UP’s main line. The filing by Flint Hill Resources Railroad, a subsidiary of refining company Flint Hill Resources, seeks the connection to give Flint Hill’s Iowa Falls, Iowa plant, access to both railroads, which the filing says will allow for “competition and improvements in service, which will increase the competitiveness of the plant.” The plant currently handles four 80-car unit trains of ethanol per month. The filing says the company will contract with a third party or grant CN trackage rights over the new line, and that CN supports the project, while saying “it is not yet clear whether UP will oppose the project.” It says it hopes to negotiate an agreement with UP to allow the crossing, but is prepared to file a crossing petition with the STB if UP is unwilling to grant its permission.

UP maintenance worker killed in Arizona accident
A Union Pacific maintenance worker has died in an on-the-job accident in Arizona, the Associated Press reports. Company spokesman Tim McMahan said systems laborer James Morgan was fatally injured Sunday in an accident in Vail, Ariz., about 24 miles southeast of Tucson. A post on the National Transportation Safety Board says the agency is investigating an accident in which an employee was struck by a rail tamper.