Oil train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Québec 07-06-2013

Zeke wrote:No matter where one looks at the former MMA every rule, from serious track defects, loco maintenance, operating personnel and senior management was ignored or nuanced to maximize profit and safety be damned...

I think there's an important flaw in your post. For most of its life, MM&A wasn't maximizing profits, they were minimizing losses. I don't believe you can pin a repair using epoxy instead of proper methods as a maximizing profits sort of thing. When you need an asset (locomotive) and you simply lack the resources (cash and, because of a cash shortage, people with time and skill) to machine a patch, prep the surfaces, weld it in, grind it down to true and check your work, you do what you can, slap some epoxy on, fill the lube oil, and ship it out hoping it holds. It wasn't about returning dividends, it was about trying to operate a railroad in an area with shrinking population, poor economics and the loss of keystone customers while still meeting your common carrier obligations.

The bottom line is simple. If you don't tie enough handbrakes AND test them when you leave a train on a downhill bad things can happen and you cannot blame the consequences on poorly maintained track or locomotives. This is where everyone failed, from Tom Harding who failed to properly secure his train up through the management chain that failed to oversee T&E service employees and ensure the proper procedures were being followed. Poor safety culture from top to bottom allowed a series of unfortunate decisions fueled by financial insecurity to be so crucial.

KSmitty wrote:

Zeke wrote:No matter where one looks at the former MMA every rule, from serious track defects, loco maintenance, operating personnel and senior management was ignored or nuanced to maximize profit and safety be damned...

I think there's an important flaw in your post. For most of its life, MM&A wasn't maximizing profits, they were minimizing losses. I don't believe you can pin a repair using epoxy instead of proper methods as a maximizing profits sort of thing. When you need an asset (locomotive) and you simply lack the resources (cash and, because of a cash shortage, people with time and skill) to machine a patch, prep the surfaces, weld it in, grind it down to true and check your work, you do what you can, slap some epoxy on, fill the lube oil, and ship it out hoping it holds. It wasn't about returning dividends, it was about trying to operate a railroad in an area with shrinking population, poor economics and the loss of keystone customers while still meeting your common carrier obligations.

The bottom line is simple. If you don't tie enough handbrakes AND test them when you leave a train on a downhill bad things can happen and you cannot blame the consequences on poorly maintained track or locomotives. This is where everyone failed, from Tom Harding who failed to properly secure his train up through the management chain that failed to oversee T&E service employees and ensure the proper procedures were being followed. Poor safety culture from top to bottom allowed a series of unfortunate decisions fueled by financial insecurity to be so crucial.

The cash shortage was an artifice of the corporate paper wall between MMA and the rest of RailWorld's assets. The issue at hand in my impression was that the repair was illegal. If MMA was so cash strapped that they had to resort to criminally negligent acts to run their operation then they should have done the morally right (and legal) thing and declared bankruptcy. RailWorld didn't and in that sense by operating illegally they were in fact wringing "profits" (or at least revenues....) out of an operation that should have been halted. The even darker possibility is that they were running things the way they were because the paper "loss" of MMA was used to offset profits elsewhere in the corporation. Awful all around.

I probably didn't make it clear enough. What I meant was that the any legitimate common carrier's obligation is safety first and no matter what rock was turned over the MMA was violating federal regulations and proper maintenance procedures. As Mr. Keefe states they had no business operating that railroad on a shoe string and the meat head who walked away from that engine belching oil was a prime example of a corporate railroad culture that was totally out of hand. For the life of me how big Ed and his management group escaped prosecution is perplexing. I read some report where the TSB track inspectors traveling the main line after Megantic were coming up with an inordinate amount defects per mile, the engine house records on some units out on the road were non existent, road foreman/trainmasters were not doing the required federally mandated operating compliance monthly tests, the train dispatcher RTC's were unfamiliar with their territories and on and on. It is quite possible if that can of worms was opened in a court of law it would cast unwanted aspersions on the Canadian regulatory agencies tasked to oversee the MMA and in todays political climate it is bureaucratic CYA time. I would agree that they really should have thrown in the towel as the whole fast and loose outfit was cruising at top speed for a disaster ala Megantic.

Zeke wrote:It is quite possible if that can of worms was opened in a court of law it would cast unwanted aspersions on the Canadian regulatory agencies tasked to oversee the MMA and in todays political climate it is bureaucratic CYA time. I would agree that they really should have thrown in the towel as the whole fast and loose outfit was cruising at top speed for a disaster ala Megantic.

Well said. I would further say that from a very distant point of view regarding causality that the regulatory environment in Canada is potentially so different as to have had a significant effect on the statistical likelihood of this catastrophe occurring in Canada instead of the U.S. There may yet be a "day in court" for the victims at which they will be able to see some form of justice done to RailWorld and its leadership.

correct me if im wrong but don't they have only 3 other roads aka 1 in the u.s. and 2 over seas and this was there main road and they were stupid to sell it aka letting all there motive power go for auction for dimes, and hey should have kept the bar power which somewhat newer and were in better shape than the ancient ge's.

Most BAR power during the Iron Road era was leased, and it was older, not newer. GP35s and GP38s all from 1966 or earlier. The MMA GEs were from the late '70s (Dash 7s) and the late '80s (Dash 8s).

but they were in better condition and I know when I worked there the gp7's we got of the atsf were dash 2 standards.

The GEs were in fantastic shape when MMA first got them. They allowed them to fall apart. That would have happened even if they'd had EMDs instead.

CBC.ca is reporting a 435,000,000 dollar settlement has been reached compensating the relatives of victims and reimbursing the municipalities for expenses incurred in the fire and cleanup efforts. Everybody drag netted, except CP, coughed up millions including Irving, the railcar manufacturers, the MMA's insurance carrier and the trains crude oil shipper World Fuels, who alone kicked in 135,000,000 dollars. CP living up to EHH's ruthless robber baron image stated, " CP was not among the parties responsible for the incident, the train was not operated by CP employees or traveling on CP tracks, nor were our locomotives, our rail cars or products involved in the derailment !" EHH is a real throwback in the railroad tradition of Jay Gould, Commodore Vanderbilt and Eastern and Portland's E.F. Malone. He is a mean SOB, a heck of a railroader and a faithful steward (LOL) of CP share price. I am going to miss him when he retires.

Wow. Thanks for the update, Zeke. Is World Fuels paying the largest piece of the pie of any single entity?

Edit: here's the link to the CBC article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... -1.3106289" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mr. Zeke; love it how Jager "conveniently" forgets that the train originated on the SOO and that CP accepted the train as a line haul. The revenues were divided between his two roads as well as the MMA.

World Fuels should be on tap "big time"; they knew their stuff was quicker to go BOOM than the 1267 Hazmat class intended.

Today's Wall Street Journal has more extensive coverage of the other parties that have contributed to the settlement fund, however less regarding CP's decision to decline.

I think on this one "the fat lady has yet to sing":

http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-oil-fir ... 1433980259" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

Oil companies have quietly agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars into a compensation fund for deaths and damage caused by a 2013 oil-train explosion in Quebec, though the energy industry has maintained it wasn’t responsible for the disaster.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Marathon Oil Corp. , ConocoPhillips, Irving Oil Ltd. and others have contributed to a $345 million fund for victims of the accident in Lac-Mégantic, according to court filings and interviews.

If U.S. and Canadian courts approve the fund, the companies would be shielded from several lawsuits claiming wrongful death and negligence in connection with the tragedy.

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., the small railroad hauling the crude oil, sought bankruptcy protection soon after the accident, in which an unattended train carrying oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation derailed and erupted into flames, killing 47.................Canadian Pacific hasn’t agreed to pay into the fund. A Canadian Pacific spokesman said compensation should be from companies “responsible for the derailment,” and not from companies that want to be shielded from future lawsuits.

Yes Gilbert we pretty much agreed many posts ago that the lawyers would ravage anybody within a million miles of this wreck. One thing I have always drilled into my student engineers is you never ever want to be responsible for a major wreck. Just proves my long held contention that one engineer making a bad decision can cause incalculable mayhem.

Looks like "Eddie skates"; " round up the usual suspects" - better known as underlings:

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... evelopment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

On Monday, Transport Canada and Environment Canada announced they were filing charges against the employees and the railroad itself for violating the Railway Safety Act and the Fisheries Act. The announcement comes just two weeks before the second anniversary of the wreck that leveled 30 buildings and killed 47 people. Among the employees that will be required to appear in court later this year are CEO Robert Grindrod; locomotive engineer Thomas Harding, who parked the doomed train just hours before it exploded; operations manager Jean Demaitre; assistant transportation director Mike Horan; safety director Kenneth Strout; and general manager of transportation Lynne Labonté, according to the Globe and Mail. The MM&A and its Canadian subsidiary have also been charged.

If convicted of violating the safety act, the railroad could face a fine of $1 million. Individuals could face a fine of $50,000 and six months in jail. The new charges come more than a year after provincial prosecutors filed 47 counts of criminal negligence against Harding, Demaitre, and train dispatcher Richard Labrie. The three men are expected to go to trial later this year.

The MM&A's former owner, Ed Burkhardt, has not been charged with any crime. In an email late Monday, Burkhardt told Trains News Wire that he had “no comment” about the new charges.

Looks like the Mounties nailed the CEO of the Canadian subsidiary MM&AC, but only at such time I learn that Eddie UNOHOO is escorted off the plane by US Marshals and handed to the RCMP, will I say "the Mounties got their man".

Who at Transport Canada will suffer consequences? Shouldn't talk about that though, would be embarrassing to the Tories with an election pending.

As for CP, what is the basis for them to pay anything here?