Those suspected of causing the train crash in Lac-Mégantic appeared in court Tuesday, facing charges of criminal negligence that resulted in the deaths of 47 people.
The charges against the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic rail company and three of its employees come 10 months after a runaway train rolled toward the eastern Quebec town before jumping the tracks and bursting into flames shortly after midnight on July 6 of last year.
Only days before charges were brought against the MM&A, Central Maine and Quebec Railway – the company purchasing the assets of the MM&A – said that it hoped to have an agreement in place with the officials of Lac Megantic within 10 days that would allow the railroad to ship non-hazardous goods, restoring the railroad’s vital east-west link.
“In the interest of safety, and I think being sensitive toward a social contract with Lac-Mégantic,” says John Giles, president and CEO of Central Maine and Quebec Railway, “we have chosen not to handle crude oil and dangerous goods through the city until we've got the railroad infrastructure improved, and made more reliable.”
The company plans to spend $10 million on rail improvements in Canada over the next two summer construction periods before resuming oil shipments in 18 months. The industry is relying heavily on trains to transport oil in part because of oil booms in North Dakota's Bakken region and Alberta's oil sands.
“I want to get the railroad in position that by January 2016 that I can at least begin to compete for potential crude business moving east west,” Giles told reporters.
Giles' company closed on the sale of U.S. assets of the bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway on Thursday. The firm is expected to close of the Canadian assets in a couple of weeks.
Lac Megantic Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche has told the new operator on a previous occasion that she wanted the railroad to be re-routed around the downtown.
