Questions and Answers – Follow-up Audit on Rail Safety
Note: Throughout the document, statistics are based on Transportation Safety Board data.
- Is the railway system in Canada Safe?
Canada maintains one of the safest rail systems in the world as a result of shared efforts between Transport Canada, railway companies and communities. Since 2013, train accidents have decreased by 10 percent (down from 1,316 in 2013 to 1,188 in 2020). In March 2021, the Transportation Safety Board recognized this strong safety performance, and tweeted that the number of fatalities has decreased (13 fewer than the previous year), and the there has been a 12 percent decrease in the number of accidents from the five-year average.
This improvement in rail safety has occurred in the context of increased freight traffic, which has increased by 8% since 2013 (measured in billions of revenue ton miles, which refers to the movement of one revenue-producing ton of freight over a distance of one mile). Accounting for this increase in traffic, the accident rate per billion revenue ton miles shows a downward trend since 2013, from 4.14 in 2013 to 2.73 in 2020.
The Rail Safety Act Review of 2018 confirmed that the railway system in Canada is safe. The panel wrote: “The safety of the rail system has improved in the last 5 to 10 years… Due to a sustained focus on inspections, compliance and enforcement, as well as technological improvements and investments in rail infrastructure, main track derailments have been on the decrease.”
- What are the key steps that TC has taken since 2013 to improve safety?
Transport Canada is continuously looking for ways to make our railway system even safer for Canadians. Since 2013, Transport Canada has implemented significant changes, such as:
- Hired more inspectors, from 101 in 2013 to 155 in 2020;
- Increased the number of inspections from approximately 20,000 in 2013, to an average of 35,000 in the last five years, and peaking last year at 40,581 inspections, which was the highest number of rail safety inspections ever done in Canada;
- Imposed speed restrictions on trains operating in metropolitan areas, especially if they carry dangerous goods; and
- Established stronger requirements for tank car safety standards, including requirements for thicker steel on cars carrying flammable liquids.
In the last year alone, Transport Canada finalized regulations requiring video recorders to be installed in locomotives, approved new rules to improve fatigue management, and ordered the industry to improve employee safety in yard operations.
- Given TC is unable to show how its oversight contributes to rail safety in any way seven years after Lac-Mégantic, and the rate of accidents is about the same, doesn’t that mean the rail system is just as risky as ever for Canadians?
Since the 2013 Lac-Mégantic tragedy, significant changes have made a real difference in the safety of the Canadian rail system. These changes, among others, include an increase in the number of inspectors from 101 to 155, the introduction of better enforcement tools, and stronger legislative authorities.
To address the causes of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, Transport Canada has taken a number of important steps to improve safety, including speed restrictions for trains carrying dangerous goods, and requirements for the use of hand brakes to prevent uncontrolled movements.
As a result of these important safety measures, the number of rail accidents have dropped by 10 percent (from 1,316 in 2013 to 1,188 in 2020)*.
- Why has Transport Canada been slow in improving the oversight of rail safety?
Transport Canada has taken immediate and decisive action to improve oversight of rail safety in Canada. For example, Transport Canada hired more inspectors, increased the number of annual inspections, and implemented speed restrictions for trains carrying dangerous goods.
In the last year alone, Transport Canada developed regulations and rules:
- Requiring voice and video recorders to be installed in locomotives, which will help us to better understand safety issues and risks that lead to accidents;
- Improving fatigue management, which better align with the latest science on fatigue management; and
- Ordering the industry to improve employee safety in yard operations by requiring new procedures to reduce the safety risks when conducting switching operations.
- How many accidents/deaths could have been avoided if TC had done a better job at overseeing rail safety?
On March 5, 2021, Transportation Safety Board recognized significant reductions in both rail accidents and fatalities. Specifically, the number of fatalities decreased by 13 from the previous year, and there has been a 12% decrease in the number of accidents from the five-year average. Rail accidents have dropped by 10 percent since 2013 (from 1316 in 2013 to 1188 in 2020)*. These numbers confirm that the improvements made by Transport Canada in regulations, rules and standards, and a more rigorous oversight regime, contribute to increasing the safety of Canadian rail.
- How will you measure effectiveness of Transport Canada’s rail safety oversight program?
As noted by the Auditor General, measuring effectiveness is a complex undertaking. It is not easy to isolate the impact of our oversight role, given that there are many other factors that can have an impact, such as new technologies, traffic patterns, and climate change.
That being said, we are already starting this process by calculating and monitoring overall compliance rates with our safety regulations as an indicator of our program effectiveness. Building on this progress, we will:
- Review the performance metrics of our oversight regime, starting in April 2021;
- Develop an action plan to address gaps in our performance measurement regime by June 2021; and
- Conduct an evaluation to assess the overall effectiveness of our oversight program, starting in January 2022.
- Why is TC taking so long to follow up on non-compliances?
To follow up on a non-compliance that does not pose an immediate threat, it takes an inspector approximately 21 days. Due to the complexity of an audit, and companies’ time requirement to address the findings, the follow up time is around 38 days.
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we are looking for opportunities to be more efficient in our follow up activities to confirm compliance.
At any time in the inspection process, when an inspector identifies an immediate safety threat, a Notice and Order is issued and that threat is addressed immediately or in a very short delay. For example:
- In the course of an inspection of a rail yard, a TC Inspector observed a lack of safeguards during switching practices. The Inspector deemed the situation as an immediate threat to safe operations. The risk of cars rolling uncontrolled could have caused harm to employees and caused damage to the environment or property. The Inspector ordered a stop to all switching activities until appropriate safeguards were put in place. The same day, the railway company implemented safeguards that were deemed satisfactory to mitigate the threat.
- How often does Transport Canada audit the Safety Management Systems?
The Department has significantly increased the number of audits. When the 2013 audit report was tabled we were doing an average of 4 audits per year, our current yearly average is 25.
Since the introduction of the SMS regulations in 2015, the Department conducted compliance audits for all railway companies.
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, TC is exploring measures that will allow the frequency and number of audits to continue to increase.
- How does Transport Canada assess risk?
Transport Canada examines specific evidence-based risk indicators to determine the level of monitoring and inspections required.
The risk indicators include: data from Transportation Safety Board, results of previous inspections, and data received from the railway companies. Each indicator is weighted using risk scoring methodology which provides an assessment for each: track, operations, equipment, signals and crossings. Our frequency of inspections and audits are prioritized based on the risk score for each function.
10. Why is TC failing to assess the effectiveness of Safety Management Systems (SMS) after many recommendations to do so over the last 14 years?
Transport Canada has taken a step-by-step process to support the implementation of safety management systems throughout the rail network. This process started with the creation of the Safety Management Systems Regulation, which came into effect in 2015. The new Regulations established new requirements for railway companies to develop safety management systems.
As part of the implementation process for the new regulations, Transport Canada’s oversight in this area began with looking at compliance and implementation of the regulation in order to build a strong practice of establishing the systems and safety culture, before turning toward measuring performance. We have achieved considerable progress – compliance audits of safety management systems have been completed for all railway companies in Canada.
The Department developed a framework to consistently measure the effectiveness of safety management systems. We are scheduled to launch effectiveness audits in September 2021.
11. It doesn’t look like many recommendations from the previous report have been implemented? Why not?
Transport Canada has taken action to address all of the Auditor General’s recommendations from the 2013 audit. The follow-up audit found that, “Overall, Transport Canada made progress in addressing recommendations from our 2013 audit in the areas we followed up on; however, we also found that the department still had important improvements to make.”
Since 2013 Transport Canada has:
- Increased the number of rail safety inspectors from 101 to 155, and increased the number of dangerous goods inspectors from 30 to 90;
- Increased the number of inspections and audits from 20,000 in 2013, to an average of 35,000 in the last five years, and peaking last year at 40,581, which was the highest number of rail safety inspections ever done in Canada; and
- Taken significant measures to: restrict speed in metropolitan areas and during the winter period, prevent the uncontrolled movement of the trains, and strengthen the rules on train securement.
In the last year alone, we developed regulations requiring video recorders to be installed in locomotives, approved new rules to improve fatigue management, and ordered the industry to improve employee safety in yard operations.
12. Does Transport Canada imposed administrative monetary penalties, and how much does this involve?
Under the Railway Safety Act, Transport Canada can issue an administrative monetary penalty (AMP) to corporations and individuals for contraventions of the Act, regulations and rules. The maximum AMP for an individual is $50,000, and the maximum AMP for a corporation is $250,000.
Since 2015, Transport Canada has served a total of 34 Notices of Violation, which represents a total of 57 Administrative Monetary Penalties, to federally-regulated railway companies. The total amount of monetary penalties served since 2015 is $2,448,878, which represents an average of $42,963 per monetary penalty.
13. How many inspectors does Transport Canada have for rail safety, and how many inspections have you done?
Since 2013, we increased the number of rail safety inspectors from 101 to 155, and increased the number of dangerous goods inspectors from 30 to 90.
With more capacity, we increased the number of annual inspections from 20,000 in 2013, to an average of 35,000 in the last five years, and peaking last year at 40,581 inspections, which was the highest number of rail safety inspections ever done in Canada.