News release

Today, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released its investigation report (R23H0006) into an incident where a Canadian National Railway Company (CN) freight train nearly collided head-on with a VIA Rail Canada Inc. (VIA) passenger train carrying 167 passengers near Cornwall, Ontario.

On April 13, 2023, the CN train was travelling east on the south track of the Kingston Subdivision when it passed a Clear to Stop signal which indicates to proceed and prepare to stop at the next signal. The CN crew missed the signal, and as the train approached the Stop signal at Wesco, near Cornwall, they applied the train air brakes in emergency and made an emergency radio broadcast.

At the same time, the VIA passenger train was approaching Wesco on the same track, where it was lined to cross over to the north track. Upon hearing the emergency radio broadcast from the CN crew, the VIA train crew brought the passenger train to a controlled stop, coming to rest about 1100 feet from the CN train.

The investigation determined that the CN train crew was focused on preparing for future tasks which divided their attention from the primary task of following railway signal indications, resulting in the missed Clear to Stop indication. As a result, the crew was not prepared to stop at the next signal so when the emergency braking was applied, there was an insufficient distance to stop the train before passing the signal.

As a result of this occurrence and two other ongoing investigations (R23E0079 and R23V0205), the TSB sent a letter to the Minister of Transport concerning the absence of physical fail-safe defences for trains operating in Canada. To date, no response has been received from the Minister regarding the concerns raised by the TSB. Even though the TSB has been calling for this for almost 25 years, the Canadian railway industry continues to rely solely on administrative defences to protect against train crews not responding appropriately to signal indications. However, human factors science shows, and the TSB has demonstrated in multiple investigation reports, that the current defences in place are not enough to prevent adverse outcomes.

As of 2020, the United States has fully implemented a physical fail-safe train control, known as positive train control (PTC), for railways operating on high-hazard routes, which includes both CN and Canadian Pacific Railway Company. PTC automatically intervenes to slow or stop a train when a crew does not respond to signal indications displayed in the field. It can also protect against overspeed derailments, incursions into work zones, and main track switches left in the wrong position. Given the risk to train crews and the travelling public, the TSB strongly urges Transport Canada and the railway industry to accelerate the implementation of physical fail-safe train controls on high-speed rail corridors and key routes in Canada.

See the investigation page for more information.