MONTREAL — The bankrupt railway at the centre of the Lac-Megantic train explosion and several of its former employees have settled with the federal government and were ordered to pay fines totalling $1.25 million.
Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway pleaded guilty and was ordered today to pay $1 million for violating the Fisheries Act.
Six ex-MMA employees pleaded guilty to violating the Railway Safety Act and five of them were ordered to pay $50,000 each.
Ex-train engineer Thomas Harding was given conditional sentence of six months in prison, which will be served in the community.
The charges against MMA and its former employees were brought by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
They were separate from the charge of criminal negligence causing death that Harding, and two other ex-MMA employees were acquitted for in January in Quebec Superior Court.
A runaway MMA train derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people and destroying part of the town’s downtown core.