Train derails on New West waterfront

A train derailed on New Westminster’s waterfront for the second time in less than a month.
On Sunday afternoon, an empty CN boxcar derailed as it was crossing Front Street under the eastern side of the parkade, across from Westminster Pier Park.
“It was a single rail car that came off the track. It was called an upright derailment. There was no hazmat issues,” said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr. “It was a very slow speed that it was travelling.”
Puchmayr, a member of the railway community advisory panel, has asked that derailments be discussed at the group’s next meeting as he’d like to know the causes of the derailments and how the railways can prevent these incidents from occurring. The panel includes representatives from four railways operating in New West, council, city staff and local residents.
Sunday’s derailment comes just weeks after three grain cars ran off the tracks near East Columbia Street and Brunette Avenue at about 3:45 a.m. on April 5.  Last July, five train cars carrying grain derailed along Quayside Drive because of a broken track.
“Anytime a train car goes off the track it is concerning,” Puchmayr said. “It has to be concerning. If it’s a chemical car or a car with hazardous materials in it and there’s any kind of release, there are huge costs to responding to it. There’s also a concern about safety of the community. Having said that, we are very cognizant that four railways operate within New Westminster and have historically.”
Fire Chief Tim Armstrong told the Record he learned about the derailment from a report on the news and contacted on-duty firefighters about whether they’d been called to the scene. The fire department sent a crew down to the site and found there had been a derailment but their assistance wasn’t needed.
“They felt there was no need to do so because it wasn’t obstructing any traffic, it was on their property and it wasn’t interfering,” he said. “There was no dangerous goods so there was no need to contact us because there was really nothing for us to do.”
While the railways have agreed to contact the fire department if a derailment occurs that involves any dangerous goods, Armstrong said they aren’t obligated to provide notifications if a car skips the track and poses no community impacts or risk to public safety.
“Supposedly it’s more common than you hear of,” he said. “Think of how many miles of track there is.”
Sunday’s incident prompted a number of New West residents to post photos on Twitter and generated some comments about the number of derailments this month and the city’s ability to respond.
Armstrong is confident the city has enough internal resources and mutual aid agreements with other communities to respond to derailments involving hazardous materials.
“I think people become a little hyper sensitive to the railways,” he said. “The reality is the railway has been there as long as the Quay has been there. There has been dangerous goods moving through there. It’s not like they just started doing it yesterday. I am sure if we look back in history there has been lots of cars that have come off the railways. I am not trying to downplay it at all … but I don’t think we need to create any kind of panic down there because I don’t think anything has really changed. If anything, I think the railways have been more responsible and have reached out to us as partners more than they possibly have done in the past. I am not overly concerned with what’s happened down there.”
On Monday, Mayor Jonathon Cote read a proclamation in honour of Public Rail Safety Week, a national week devoted to educating the public about the dangers associated with railway crossings and trespassing on railway property. According to the Railway Association of Canada, there were 180 crossing accidents and 58 trespassing accidents in Canada in 2014, a number that’s been reduced by nearly 30 per cent since Railway Safety Week began in 2003.