Questions for ya Dan (or anyone else who would know)
1) Would it not be normal to prioritize a full passenger train, over a freight; and one stuck for many more hours w/o adequate supplies/working toilets? One certainly doesn't have the impression of priority here.
It would be prudent, yes, but that doesn’t mean that the service contract between CN and VIA allows it. I would predict that there is a fairly lengthy notice period before VIA can run any non-scheduled movement, and no emergency only exception.
It has been reported that the rescue train was in fact the first scheduled eastbound train of the following day. I interpret that as suggesting there may have been a reluctance - or inability - to dispatch a special train. Certainly there would have been equipment laying over at the TMC all night that could have been pressed into service much sooner..
2) I don't know, but assuming the toilets stopped working due to the tanks filling up. In an emergency situation is there no way to empty on to the ballast? Whatever clean-up is later required is surely preferable to no working bathrooms.
I don’t know much about VIA holding tanks - but based on others I know more intimately, some amount of pump or suction technology might be required. The whole idea of the design is to prevent spillage, not enable it.
Even opening the drain spout would be difficult under extreme weather conditions, possibly the drain plugs would be frozen, and possibly the tooling needed to remove the drain plug would not be on hand. I would not expect the workers on hand would know how, and whether they would be equipped and willing to do so seems quite unlikely. Definitely not in their job description.
The other question would be whose authority would be required and what the subsequent repercussions would be. Any number of authorities and regulators would be in a position to second guess the whole thing afterwards - and whether CN would be sympathetic is a good question. I imagine that the normal chain of middle management command on either the CN or VIA side would have been reluctant to “do it and beg forgiveness”. I can’t blame them…. the issue here seems to be that the situation either did not reach a level where people are paid to make those decisions, or if it did, they saw the situation as not serious, as clearly they should have imho.
(That’s why I would personally not hesitate to involve first responders in this type of situation… their authority is not unlimited, but their top officers have much more leeway to “do what is required” on the spur of the moment, and they have protocols to assess and sort out the serious stuff eg medical distress from the inconvenient but benign)
The other question would be, once the flush-water reservoir is emptied, would the toilet be operable. Again, I’m not sure, but I suspect the reservoir might have a float valve and an interlock on the circuit. So an empty flush-water tank could be as big a showstopper as a full waste tank….. dumping the waste doesn’t fix that.
3) I assume (again don't know) that trains don't carry significant surplus liquid beyond what they expect to provide for routine meals/snacks etc. I get where carrying vast amounts of surplus potable water is a hassle/cost; but it seems like they ran out quite early, is it your perception that more potable water/liquid should be on-board than is routinely the case?
I’m reluctant to agree that every VIA train needs to carry “emergency rations”. But the logistics of rescuing a stranded train and/or bringing emergency relief to that train apparently needs more planning and defense in depth. Going back to point 1 - there are situations where CN ought to be required to drop everything and respond to VIA as first priority. If that isn’t in the service contract today, it needs to be - regardless of the generally lopsided power relationship. And VIA needs to have contingency plans that will get people or material on site anywhere in the corridor.
4) Its my understanding that after being hit by the tree, the crew was able to maneuver the train under its own power to a nearby siding. If that was possible, and not safety risk, would it not have made sense to get it to the nearest station?
From what has been said unofficially, and the photos floating around, I am assuming that at the least the horns and/or bell were disabled, and there may have been other rooftop components that were damaged and prevented moving the train or that pinned the train in place. I would be willing to believe that moving the train ceased to be an option. I do wonder why the rearmost cars could not have been cut off and pulled in reverse, but that assumes available people and a locomotive to do so.
- Paul
