An investigation is underway to determine what caused a CN train derailment in St-Henri Sunday, spilling diesel from one of its engines.
The freight train was travelling from Halifax to Montreal and wasn't carrying any dangerous goods, CN spokesperson Louis-Antoine Paquin confirmed. He also explained that two locomotives and two cars containing grains came off the rails near St. Jacques and de Courcelle Sts., but remained upright.
Paquin said clean-up crews have been working efficiently to clean up hundreds of litres of diesel and there is no danger to the area.
“The spilled diesel has not migrated into the ground as it is frozen, so there's no effect to the public,” he said.
Still, local residents like Carole Plouffe are worried.
Plouffe said she’s used to the sound of passing trains, but her Saturday night dinner guests were startled by what they heard after midnight.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom, maybe seven or eight times. So I said to everybody, ‘Oh my God, something's wrong,’” she said.
Plouffe, who has three children living at home with her, is deeply shaken, especially, she said, after the tragedy in Lac-Megantic.
“Nothing bad happened this time, but who knows you know? What could happen next time?” she said.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre agreed it is a concern.
“Of course train security is an issue. We want to know what's in the wagons before they're passing. We need also to make sure that at the security level, everything is appropriate,” he said.
Lachine Mayor Claude Dauphin is heading a working group making recommendations on rail safety to Federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt.
“We still need to be very rigorous about our work and all the bylaws in Canada need to be updated and yesterday is (more) proof that we have to work very hard,” said Dauphin, who also serves as the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Meanwhile, Southwest Borough Mayor Benoit Dorais, said he's disappointed with CN's communication strategy.
“The derailment happened around midnight and I had no information until around 10 o'clock in the morning. It's not the proper way to inform the municipal officials,” he said.
CN said it followed protocol.
“Since there was no threat to the population, no dangerous goods involved, no injuries, the firefighters did not have to intervene, we waited until morning to contact city officials,” said Paquin.
