Canada, U.S. transport officials to discuss rail safety regulations

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Transport Minister Lisa Raitt is expected to travel to Washington on Friday to address plans for aligning rail safety regulations with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, part of a wider push in both countries to respond to a spate of fiery accidents.

The meeting comes nearly two years after a train carrying crude oil came loose from its brakes and crashed into downtown Lac-Mégantic, Que., killing 47 people and flattening several city blocks. While regulators have issued a patchwork of new rules and emergency measures in the wake of that accident, Ottawa and Washington have so far been unable to reach an agreement on how long the industry should have to take older and less-secure tank cars out of service.

Last month, Transport Canada issued a proposed timeline that would see the industry transition to a new, next-generation tank car for crude oil and other flammable liquid shipments by 2025. The U.S. has not yet announced a time frame of its own, but industry sources said on Wednesday that they were expecting new rules to be announced soon.

While neither government has confirmed that a meeting will take place, sources said that arrangements are being made for Ms. Raitt to meet with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Friday.

The two leaders are widely expected to focus on tank-car safety standards, but could also address other rail-safety matters, including speed limits for crude oil trains and rules for the types of brakes that are installed on trains.

Tom Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, said an announcement could come this week on U.S. tank-car rules. Mr. Simpson, who represents makers of rail cars and other rail equipment, said manufacturers and shops cannot meet demand to upgrade or replace tank cars in less than 10 years.

Safety agencies in Canada and the U.S. have been critical of Ottawa's 10-year time frame, saying swifter action is needed. Last month, Canada's Transportation Safety Board cited recent derailments in Ontario as proof that the proposed timeline is inadequate.

Two trains derailed near the small northern Ontario town of Gogama earlier this year, spilling crude and causing major fires. In both cases, the tank cars carrying the crude were built after 2011 and complied with the government's current, CPC-1232 standard. That means they had steel cladding at the front and protection over the valves – added safeguards that were not present on the earlier-model tank cars involved in the Lac-Mégantic disaster two years ago.

Transport Canada's proposed rules would phase out those cars for flammable liquids by December, 2020, and require a complete transition to a "next-generation" model by May, 2025.

In a working paper released on Thursday, York University Professor Mark Winfield called for an overhaul of the current rail-safety regime. He said safety management systems employed by Transport Canada have become a "distraction" from the traditional safety-oversight role.

Under the current system, Transport Canada signs off on safety plans that have been designed by individual railways and audits their operations to make sure they are following their own rules.

"Serious questions exist around the department's capacity to simultaneously implement [the safety management system] regime and maintain adequate traditional oversight activities," Prof. Winfield wrote in the paper, which will be presented at a research conference on public administration next month.

Instead, Prof. Winfield said Transport Canada should consider expanded statutory duties of care for company officers and directors that could make them personally liable if the company fails to take reasonable care to prevent an offence.

With a report from Shawn McCarthy in Ottawa