GATINEAU, Quebec — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its final annual statistics on transportation accidents for 2021, with rail figures showing an increase from 2020 while remaining below the 10-year average for reported accidents.
Air, marine, and pipeline accidents were also below 10-year averages, according to a TSB press release.
In all, there were 1,038 rail accidents in 2021, compared to 988 in 2020. The 10-year average is 1,071.
Among notable details:
— There were 60 rail fatalities in 2021, equalling 2020 but below the 10-year average of 71. Of the 2021 fatalities, 42 involved trespassers; one involved a rail employee.
— There were also 51 serious injuries, up from 40 in 2020 but below the 10-year average of 58. Twenty-four involved crossing accidents and 17 involved trespassers. Six railway employees were seriously injured, down from eight a year earlier and below the 10-year average of 11.
— There were three main-track collisions — below both 2020 and 10-year-average figures —and 76 main-track derailments, up from 70 in 2020 but less than the 10-year average of 83. The number of main-track derailments per million main-track train-miles increased from 0.93 in 2020 to 1.03 in 2021. The 10-year average is 1.04.
— The 135 grade-crossing accidents in 2021 was up from 130 in 2020 but well below the 10-year average of 165. Of those 57, or 42%, occurred at public crossings with automated crossing signals; 56, or 41%, were at passive public crossings; and 22, or 19%, were at private or farm crossings.
The full report on rail occurrences is available here.
The TSB had released preliminary figures in February [see “Canadian rail accidents showed slight increase …,” Trains News Wire, March 1, 2022].
While I don’t see anything that looks “abnormal”, I do NOT see any improvement in any area. So it seems that either this is considered normal. No new areas to have aggressive action to improve. Same old status-quo. Wish there was more angst that there was no significant improvement.
Looking at these numbers the transition to PSR based operations had no impact on incidents in Canada.
I would like to see a report on the US railroads that is identical in format to this Canadian one.