Crews burn off propane from first train derailment
Posted Jun 17, 2010 03:06:43 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Over the next couple of days emergency, crews will be burning the propane still inside several railcars which derailed near Avondale on Sunday. The controlled burn is expected to create large flares and take several days.
The initiative comes as the Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the incident, as well as a second derailment on the same Cape Breton Rail line Wednesday. Four cars went off the track near Stellerton.
This latest incident has residents raising concerns about rusted, rotten rail lines. There’s concern as to whether maintenance has been kept up and what the future of maintenance on the line will be now that a government subsidy has run dry.
The Minister for Economic Rural Development says the $2 million subsidy did provide for maintenance of the line. Percy Paris added the government is currently in negotiations to possibly renew the subsidy.
“My phone is not ringing off the wall about people calling me to inquire about that subsidy,” Paris told reporters following his cabinet meeting at One Government Place, today. “I think people know the subsidy has run out. I think people know this government has been negotiating with the rail.”
Neither the minister nor Premier Darrell Dexter was aware the Transportation Safety Board was unaware of Wednesday’s derailment even as they were investigating Sunday’s incident. The premier says if that was the case it is a cause for concern and the minister will be looking into it.
“It’s up to the railway to act responsibly in regard to these matters and to provide appropriate information to the Transportation Safety Board if it’s requires,” Dexter told reporters today.
