This paper provides context and rationale for the review of the Railway Safety Management System Regulations, 2015. The paper is also included to encourage ideas on the existing regulations and how they could be improved.
On this page
- Background
- The 2018 Rail Safety Act Review
- Transportation Safety Board Recommendations
- Auditor General’s 2021 follow-up audit on the Rail Safety Report
- Report from the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, June 2022
- Review of the Rail Safety Management System Regulations, 2015
Background
The Rail Safety Management System Regulations first came into force in 2001. The regulations created a system for managing safety within the rail industry. They were designed to support the existing laws and policies, and required railway companies to:
- manage the safety of their operations
- identify hazards
- assess and reduce the impact of risks, and
- build safety-consciousness into their day-to-day work
Based on a number of reports and recommendations, Transport Canada reviewed the 2001 regulations and in 2015, they were replaced with an updated version – the 2015 Railway Safety Management System Regulations.
The 2015 regulations expanded the number of rail companies that must have a safety management system, and improved Transport Canada’s ability to oversee safety in the rail sector.
Since the 2015 regulations came into force, we have audited the safety management systems of many rail companies, including national freight railways. Through this process, we audited the safety management system of every federally regulated railway to record a baseline of each company’s compliance with the regulations.
Throughout 2020-21, we developed a targeted audit framework and completed targeted audits on track infrastructure. These targeted audits looked at how short lines identify safety concerns and manage knowledge of track employees. We also did targeted audits of specific incidents.
Building on this work, Transport Canada developed criteria for assessing the effectiveness of railways' safety management system processes.
The 2018 Rail Safety Act Review
The 2018 Rail Safety Act Review highlighted the Rail Safety Branch’s work:
- communicating new requirements to industry
- developing company risk profiles and an audit manual
- drafting an internal oversight guide
- establishing multi-regional committees to review audits, and
- providing updated training
Building on this work, the review recommended Transport Canada:
- continue to improve our ability to assess the effectiveness of a railway company’s safety management system
- identify the strengths and weaknesses of a railway company’s safety management system
- provide railway companies with feedback on how their safety management systems can be improved, and
- identify best practices to share with the rail sector
The review also recommended that the Safety Management System Program should move from “system-in-place” audits to an approach that focuses on key risk areas (like signals, yards, bridges), the expertise of specialized inspectors and trained railway systems auditors. The review suggested that this approach could help link processes and systems to safety results.Footnote 1
The review also suggested the Railway Safety Act:
- “be amended to allow local railway companies to request exemptions from elements of the [safety management system] regulations where [safety management system] requirements would have limited safety benefits for their operations. The exemptions should be risk-based, time-limited and require local railway companies to notify the Minister if there are any changes to the operations or class of goods being carried by a company with an existing exemption.”Footnote 2
As part of our response to this review, we committed to improving how we monitor industry compliance with the 2015 safety management system regulations by auditing railways under our jurisdiction on a 3- to 5-year cycle (or more often, as needed).
In 2018, we held workshops to share information and best practices with the rail sector.
We agreed in principle with the recommendation to permit local railway companies to request exemptions from the safety management system regulations. However, we noted the scaled down requirements already exist for local railway companies and that the question could be addressed as part of legislative review.
Transportation Safety Board Recommendations
As part of their investigation into the causes and contributing factors of the Lac-Mégantic derailment that killed 47 people in July 2013, the Transportation Safety Board recommended that “the Department of Transport audit the safety management systems of railways in sufficient depth and frequency to confirm that the required processes are effective and that corrective actions are implemented to improve safety.”Footnote 3 (Transportation Safety Board Recommendation R14-05)
As of March 2022, the Transportation Safety Board is satisfied with the department’s response to Recommendation R14-05.
The Transportation Safety Board added a “safety management” category to their watchlist in 2018. At the time, the board noted that:
- Federally regulated railways have been required to have a safety management system since 2001, and regulatory requirements were significantly enhanced in 2015. However, since then, companies’ [safety management system] have not produced the expected safety improvements associated with mature safety management and safety culture, as the rate of main-track accidents has increased, and recent [Transportation Safety Board] investigations have identified numerous shortcomings where hazards were not identified and effective risk-mitigation measures were not taken ([Transportation Safety Board] rail transportation safety investigations R17D0123, R17W0267, and R18H0039). The [Transportation Safety Board] believes that railway companies’ [safety management system] are not yet effectively identifying hazards and mitigating risks in rail transportation.Footnote 4
The Transportation Safety Board drew similar conclusions when they investigated the uncontrolled movement of rolling stock and main-track train derailment on the Laggan subdivision in Field, British Columbia.
In this case, the Transportation Safety Board recommended that Transport Canada:
- require Canadian Pacific Railway Company to demonstrate that its safety management system can effectively identify hazards arising from operations using all available information, including employee hazard reports and data trends; assess the associated risks; and implement mitigation measures and validate that they are effective.Footnote 5
The Transportation Safety Board has noted that safety management will stay on the Watchlist: “[Rail] safety data is collected and analyzed to reliably determine risk assessment and risk mitigation, leading to measurable safety improvement.”Footnote 6
Auditor General’s 2021 follow-up audit on the Rail Safety Report
In their follow-up audit on rail safety the Auditor General 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. The department strengthened its approach to planning and prioritizing activities to oversee rail safety and in following up on companies’ plans and actions to address deficiencies noted in inspections.Footnote 7
With respect to safety management systems, the Auditor General recommended that “Transport Canada should make it an immediate priority to regularly assess the effectiveness of railway companies’ safety management system processes.”
In our response, we assured the Auditor General that Transport Canada would launch consultations in April 2022 on updating the Railway Safety Management System Regulations, 2015 to strengthen rail safety requirements and improve the performance of safety management systems.
Report from the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, June 2022
The report of the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities made several recommendations related to safety management systems. These recommendations focused on assessing the effectiveness of the rail sector’s safety management systems and consistently following-up on assessments to make sure operators comply with the regulations.
The report also recommended that Transport Canada update the Safety Management System Regulations to make sure that rail companies are doing good quality risk assessments and dealing with hazards.Footnote 8
Review of the Rail Safety Management System Regulations, 2015
To meet the departmental commitment to the Auditor General and, in an effort to seek continuous improvement, we are currently reviewing the 2015 Railway Safety Management System Regulations.
Drawing on our experience overseeing safety management systems, the review will help us find issues that need to be addressed.
Through the review process, we will also integrate best practices, oversight approaches, and other issues identified by Transport Canada safety and security oversight programs.