The recent railway tragedy in a picturesque lakefront town in Quebec has highlighted the need to ensure plans are in place to address rail emergencies in New Westminster.
The small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec is reeling after a train rolled down a hill and several tankers carrying crude oil derailed and exploded on Saturday. Twenty people had been confirmed dead and another 50 were unaccounted for as of The Record's deadline.
"We have some pretty good response plans with respect to rail activity," said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr. "Having said that, we need to have a better understanding of what the railways have in place."
Railway safety will be one of the topics tackled by a community panel that the city has set up to improve its relationship with railway companies.
The community panel includes representatives from the City of New Westminster, the four railways operating in New Westminster and local residents.
Puchmayr said the city has a list of the type of goods that are transported through New Westminster.
"The really volatile ones in my opinion, would be more dangerous than crude oil," he said.
According to Puchmayr, chlorine gas, sul-furic acid, hydrogen peroxide and propane are among the products that are transported through New Westminster.
"They have been going through our city since the advent of the tanker car," he said.
"They have been and will continue to go through our city."
With that being the case, Puchmayr said it's important to consider the safety of those items and response plans in place if an incident ever occurred involving trains carrying hazardous materials.
"We need to take those plans and weave them into the railways' master response," he said.
The newly formed community panel will meet quarterly to discuss issues such as infrastructure improvements, planned developments, pedestrians and road crossings, train whistles, and community and safety concerns. Puchmayr, a member of the committee, has also been appointed as a member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' railway committee's dispute resolution subcommittee.
Puchmayr said New Westminster is in the "very unique" position of having four major railways running through the city.
"It is probably going to require some extra attention with regard to response," he said. "It should be noted, the speed at which they travel through New Westminster, the chances of a major derailment like the one in Quebec are slim to none."
While Puchmayr said train cars have "jumped off the tracks" and suspects it's unlikely for a major derailment to occur in New Westminster, he said the city has to ensure it has a modern response plan.
"We have to be more prepared than ever," he said. "We are going to work with it directly with the railways."
Puchmayr is hopeful that the community panel will enable the city and railways to abandon the "adversarial approach" that's existed in the past and work toward common solutions for issues like whistle cessation. He said the city has reached an agreement to have whistling ceased at the Sixth Street crossing on the waterfront and work is underway to discontinue whistling at the Begbie Street crossing.
"I want to completely clean the slate," said Puchmayr, a member of the panel. "I want to look at where we can go, start working on a joint mission statement. The adversarial approach, taking them to court, doesn't work anymore."
