Railway safety inspectors have the power to act when they find a safety threat during inspections. This power is found under subsection 31(1) of the Railway Safety Act (RSA).
A threat means a hazard or condition that could reasonably be expected to develop into a situation that could cause injuries to a person, or damage could be caused to property or the environment.
A Notice is used to inform a railway company or a person that a threat was found and explains the reasons for it. The Notice is then sent to the company, or person, who becomes responsible to act and mitigate the threat.
Below is a list of Notices that have been issued since April 1, 2020.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25
| Date | Region | Location | Railway Company or Person | Hazard or Condition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | 2021-11-05 |
Pacific | Waneta Subdivision | St. Paul and Pacific Northwest Railroad | Clusters of structurally deficient deck ties could lead to localized failure of the bridge deck and cause a derailment, resulting in injury or damage. |
| View | 2021-10-28 |
Atlantic | Springhill Subdivision | Municipality of Colchester (Nova Scotia) and the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The road approach geometry and the condition of the crossing surface are increasing the exposure time over the grade crossing and could cause a vehicle travelling through the crossing to lose control and/or stay stuck on the crossing surface. This situation could result in a collision causing injury or damage. |
| View | 2021-10-14 |
Quebec | Kingston Subdivision | Municipality of St. Zotique and the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The road geometry and the poor condition of the road and crossing surface could cause a vehicle travelling through the crossing to lose control and/or stay stuck on the crossing surface causing harm or damage if a collision with another vehicle or a train were to occur. |
| View | 2021-09-08 |
Quebec | St. Maurice Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The poor condition of the crossing surface is unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. Roadway users may lose confidence in the warning system or become accustomed to it activating without the presence of a train approaching or in a case of excessive warning time. Under such circumstances, road users may ignore the warning system in a systemic manner and proceed onto and over the crossing without heeding the warning system. As a consequence, users of the grade crossing are exposed to fall hazards and/or to train collisions that could lead to injuries or damage. |
| View | 2021-08-19 |
Prairie and Northern | Flin Flon Subdivision | Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) | The frequency of track unit collisions and similar incidents creates a situation that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2021-07-30 |
Quebec | Roberval Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Roadway users may lose confidence in the warning system or become accustomed to the fact that the warning system operates routinely with no trains approaching. Under such circumstance, it can be reasonably expected that road users may ignore the warning system and proceed onto and over the crossing without heeding the warning system. In addition, by blocking the crossing surface constantly within a short time frame and for long continuous periods of time may worsen the behavior of road users, consequently creating a negative bias against warning systems. This could, in turn, impact the risks at other railway crossings. |
| View | 2021-07-09 |
Ontario | Kingston Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Operating trains on tracks where uncontrolled vegetation growth physically restricts a clear view of signs and signals could result in a collision, derailment, or injuries. |
| View | 2021-06-11 |
Quebec | Bécancour Yard | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Keeping a locomotive in service with an identified safety defect, such as a missing brake component, increases the risk of a collision or other incidents, which could cause injuries and damage. |
| View | 2021-04-06 |
Quebec | Vaudreuil Subdivision | Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) | Failure to identify all scenarios (such as the possibility of a car fouling adjacent tracks) in various steps of the signal design, from the initial design to the field commissioning and the installation to be placed in revenue service with a deficiency, could jeopardize the safety of railway operations and result in an incident. This hazard or condition may not only be present at the inspected location but may also be present at previously commissioned locations. |
| View | 2020-12-15 |
Quebec | Kingston Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Since May 1, 2019, ten incidents of movement exceeding limits of authority and track unit accidents have occurred. The repetition and severity of similar incidents and the continued failure of the railway to prevent recurrence creates a situation that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-12-04 |
Ontario | Caramat, Allanwater, Oakville, Dundas and Bala Subdivisions | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | CN engineering employees occupying track and/or performing work without authorization increases the risk of collision with trains or other equipment, which could cause injuries and damage. |
| View | 2020-11-27 |
Quebec | Moosehead Subdivision | Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) | The absence of adequate sightlines at Mile 104.6 from the stopped position may not provide the required clearance time for a logging truck to safely cross the track and avoid impact with an approaching train. This could develop into a situation that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-11-26 |
Ontario | Toronto Yard in Scarborough | Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) | Failure to identify or remediate substandard track conditions, while trains operated over deteriorated track structure, could cause a train to derail and lead to injury or damage to the environment. |
| View | 2020-11-13 |
Quebec | Sorel Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | At Mile 6.38, the rubber panels, used for the crossing surface of the bike path, were installed in such a manner that the panels created an opening. A bike path user or person using an assistive device could get caught in the crossing surface opening, which could result in a fall and subsequent injury. |
| View | 2020-10-21 |
Quebec | Swanton and Rouses Point | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Rail Traffic Controller (RTC) issuing a clearance spanning to two different subdivisions, for which duplicate mileages exist, while using specific mileages as identifiable locations, creates an increased risk of error during the transmission and the repeat of authorities. Such an error can produce an unprotected overlap of authority that can lead to a collision between movements and track unit that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-10-16 |
Quebec | Belleville Subdivision | Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) | Allowing freight cars with identified defects to remain in service without ensuring it is safe to continue in operation could result in an incident that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-09-25 |
Ontario | Kingston Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Excessive warning times provided at automatic warning systems are known to negate a systems’ credibility. Unreasonable or inconsistent warning times may encourage undesirable driver behaviors such that drivers will accept shorter clearance times at grade crossings and will attempt to drive around the gates where sightlines may or may not be available resulting in a possible collision causing injury or damage. This threat is increased where multi track configurations exist such as miles 184.01 and 190.13 on the CN’s Kingston Subdivision due to the high potential of a second train. |
| View | 2020-09-11 |
Quebec | St. Laurent Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The crossing surface presents areas of damaged, uneven, and missing pavement. There are several damaged sections exceeding thirty centimeters in diameter to a depth of at least ten centimeters. As a consequence, users of the grade crossing are exposed to fall hazards that can lead to injuries. |
| View | 2020-09-04 |
Quebec | Parc Subdivision | City of Montreal | At mile 9.91, the surface of the road approach for pedestrians in the vicinity of the crossing was in poor condition. Also, the ground surface next to the road approach had collapsed around a manhole. Pedestrians using the grade crossing and railway employees could trip or fall, resulting in injury. |
| View | 2020-08-21 |
Pacific | Fraser Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | Failure to identify or remediate substandard track conditions and allowing trains to operate over deteriorated track structure without appropriate actions to ensure the safety of movements could cause a train to derail resulting in injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-07-16 |
Quebec | Taschereau Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The crossing surface at Mile 70.89 has areas of damaged wood planking as well as uneven surface and non-continuous flangeways. As a consequence, users of the pedestrian path are exposed to fall hazards that can lead to injuries. |
| View | 2020-07-16 |
Quebec | Taschereau Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | The crossing surface at Mile 97.3 presents areas of damaged, uneven, and missing pavement/wood planking and flangeway. There are several damaged sections situated within the traffic lanes, pedestrian and cycling path exceeding ten centimeters in diameter to a depth of at least ten centimeters over one meter in length. As a consequence, users of the grade crossing are exposed to motor vehicle damages and fall hazards that can lead to injuries. |
| View | 2020-07-16 |
Quebec | Taschereau Subdivision | Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) | By not having sufficient reaction and braking time when approaching the grade crossing, road users are exposed to a risk of collisions with vehicles stopped at grade crossings and/or with trains travelling on the railway track that could cause injuries. |
| View | 2020-05-29 |
Prairie and Northern | Watrous Subdivision | Canadian National Railway Company (CN) | A track unit collided with the tail end of a stopped train at mile 80.3. The repetition and severity of similar incidents and the continued failure of CN to prevent recurrence creates a situation that could cause injury or damage. |
| View | 2020-05-05 |
Prairie and Northern | Aberdeen Subdivision | Canadian National Railway (CN) | CN’s locomotive Distributed Power (DP) software allows a remote-controlled locomotive to operate independently from a train consist when operating procedures are not correctly followed. Currently, there are no safeguards in place to detect, prevent, or notify a locomotive engineer of an unintended DP locomotive operation if a task is missed in CN’s DP locomotive set out procedure. There is a risk that the unintentional operation of an unattended DP locomotive could result in a collision and/or a derailment, causing injuries and damage to the equipment or the environment. |