Broken rail that escaped detection caused 2021 potash train derailment: TSB

A cracked piece of railway track that escaped detection left 27 freight cars piled up near Silton in 2021.

According to a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada that was released Tuesday, a CP train hauling 200 cars loaded with potash derailed on Oct. 16, 2021 when its emergency brakes automatically activated.

“The train came to a stop and a subsequent inspection by the conductor determined that 27 freight cars had derailed into a large pile,” the board noted in its report.

“Many had been breached and their contents subsequently released. There were no injuries, and no dangerous goods were involved.”

The investigation determined that the rail had pre-existing fatigue cracks in it, which had spread to the base of the rail. While flaw-detection testing is done in the area more frequently than regulations require, and that stretch of rail was tested shortly before the derailment, the board said no issues were identified.

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The testing process is reliable and cost-effective, the board said, but its accuracy can be limited by the currently available technology and other factors.

“Given these limitations, rails with internal defects can sometimes be misclassified as free of defects, increasing the risk of failure and subsequent derailment,” the board noted.

CP has made some improvements to its rail network in the area which should help prevent similar incidents in the future, the board added.

“On July 29, 2022, CP implemented a Rail Integrity Non-Vital Overlay Detectors system on the Lanigan Subdivision, which sends automatic notifications to CP’s Operations Centre in the event of a broken rail, rail gap, loose joint, or rail joint pull-apart,” the report stated.

“The notifications provide advance warnings that allow the Operations Centre to stop a train before it encounters any such track discontinuities in non-signaled territory.”