“This is not the kind of job where you can just stick someone from a desk job into it. It’s the whole operating environment of what you’re dealing with.”
CP’s use of managers to run trains has raised
alarms at Canada’s rail-safety investigator, the Transportation
Safety Board, which has said that railway managers are not as well
trained and have less experience and track familiarity than do
unionized crew members.
Using managers to run locomotives increases the
“risk for unsafe train operations,” the TSB said in 2016 in an
investigation into another incident involving a manager-driven CP
train.
The latest collision happened in the southern
B.C. town of Yahk at 4:15 a.m. on March 6. A manager drove a 97-car
train westbound onto unauthorized track and was unable to stop
before hitting an eastbound train, which was diverting into a side
track, according to the TSB and CP. There were no injuries or
dangerous goods involved, but one hopper car was knocked off the
rails in the low-speed collision.
“It
was a main-track collision,” said James Carmichael, a senior
investigator with the TSB in Calgary.
“The westbound train came all the way past that
east siding switch without permission,” said one person familiar
with the incident who asked not be identified. “That’s not a minor
mistake.”
A CP spokesman said the crew consisted of two
experienced railroaders, one manager and one unionized employee,
operating the train. “The incident is still under investigation,”
Martin Cej said.
In 2015, there were four main-track collisions
for all rail companies, accounting for 0.3 per cent of rail
accidents, according to TSB data. In 2016, there were five, which is
also the five-year average.
In December, a CP train operated by managers
failed to stop at a signal near North Bend, B.C., and hit the
tail-end of a CP train stopped for a crew change. There were no
injuries or derailments.
To guard against labour shortages and work
stoppages, CP encourages non-union employees – managers and office
staff – to become qualified engineers or conductors. CP says
becoming certified as a train operator is vital to understanding the
business and a “fundamental cornerstone to the development of our
railway culture.”
The company, which says it is North America’s
safest major railway, says managers run a small number of trains,
and only when there are unforeseen spikes in customer demand or
system disruptions. All train operators are qualified, CP says. But
the use of managers to run trains has drawn the anger of the
engineers and conductors union.
Canada’s other large freight hauler, Canadian
National Railway Co., says its managers do not regularly operate
trains.
Mark Winfield, a professor at Toronto’s York
University who researches public safety regimes, said in most cases
railway managers and office staff lack the training, experience and
apprenticeship needed to learn the skills need to operate long,
heavy trains. Train crews need to be familiar with not just the
locomotive controls, but the grades, switches, signals and curves
through which they operate.
“It’s a very skilled trade,” said Prof.
Winfield, who has published research on Canada’s rail safety regime
in the wake of the Lac-Megantic, Que., oil train explosion that
killed 47 people in 2013. “This is not the kind of job where you can
just stick someone from a desk job into it. It’s the whole operating
environment of what you’re dealing with.”
“What you don’t want is for something to go
seriously wrong,” Prof. Winfield said by phone. “It comes down to
Transport Canada at the end of the day. They’re the ones with the
power to set the rules.”
In response to questions about managers running
trains, Transport Canada recently told The Globe it “monitors
companies for compliance with the regulations and takes appropriate
action, as needed.”
In 2015, a CP train operated near Cranbrook,
B.C., by three managers travelled eight kilometres on unauthorized
track before being ordered to stop. Two were experienced railroaders
before becoming managers but no one in the cab was familiar with the
route, the TSB said in its report on the incident.
“With shorter training periods, fewer
on-the-job training trips, and fewer prerequisites prior to starting
training, it may be difficult for management employees to acquire
the necessary knowledge and experience to become fully proficient
with operating trains,” said the TSB, whose mandate includes
identifying safety lapses.
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, the union
that represents about 3,000 locomotive engineers and conductors,
says CP’s use of managers on the tracks is a violation of the
collective agreement and the Canada Labour Code. The Canadian
Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) and labour arbitrators have
generally agreed.
The CIRB in 2015 told CP to stop replacing
unionized crew members with managers-in-training, and to stop using
union members to train managers because the practices violate the
Canada Labour Code.
Last week, both sides went before the CIRB
again for hearings on the matter before adjourning to talk about a
settlement.
RAILWAY INDUSTRY REPORTER — The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Mar. 15, 2017
