Transcript
[Frédérick Fortin:]
When I was young, we travelled a lot. I was born in Africa. We often slept with the window open. In the middle of the night, on one occasion, I heard singing. When I went outside, I saw a line of about 80 men on the railway track working. I watched them work all the way down, and I was fascinated. That’s when I felt something inside me calling me to the railway. That is what got me hooked.
My name is Frédérick Fortin. I’m a rail safety inspector in the Track Department. Our work mainly involves inspecting the railway tracks on the various railways in Quebec.
We ensure that these railways follow the minimum standards, which are the Rules Respecting Track Safety (TSR). We work together with the railways and the inspectors there to ensure that the tracks are safe.
One of the main instruments used is the track assessment vehicle (TAV), which is the vehicle you see behind me. This is the tool we use to find any kind of surface defect, to make sure the railway is safe.
I have been with Transport Canada for just over nine years now, and I’ve been in the rail sector for almost 20 years. It is fascinating work. It is a job where we get to travel a lot. It allows us to see a lot of the country, to meet a lot of people.
There are several inspectors here in Quebec, and I am fortunate to be part of an incredible team. There are people here who have been doing this work for 40 years. Most of the people we see on the railways are very respectful people. These are people who share our passion.
The railway infrastructure is something that fascinates me more than anything else. It’s really at the foundation of everything. Without it, there would be nothing. It’s on this that the trains operate, it’s what the crossings are installed on.
I will never know how many derailments we’ve prevented or how many lives we’ve saved. But when I go home at night, I feel that the railway or the places we went to that day are a little safer than they were before.