CP calls for on-board recording technology legislation

Canadian Pacific officials are urging the Canadian government to act on legislation that would implement on-board locomotive video and voice recorders (LVVR).

The Class I has long been a supporter of the need to implement the recording devices in Canada. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which earlier this week released the proceedings from its Safety Summit held this spring, has recommended that railroads install the devices to improve safety. The federal government has not passed legislation to require them, however.

CP executives believe the devices can aide in incident investigation but also have been proven to change in-cab behavior to prevent accidents, CP officials said in a press release.

CP uses the LVVR technology in 15 of its locomotives in the United States. The technology also is used successfully by other U.S. railroads, with studies showing a 40 percent reduction in collisions per million miles traveled, according to CP.

"I attended the summit and was heartened to see so many thoughtful people from government and industry in one place to discuss something we are passionate about at CP — safety," said CP President and Chief Operating Officer Keith Creel. "LVVR was again discussed at length as an important, proactive means to improve safety and I urge Minister Garneau and his staff to heed the advice of experts and move forward with this meaningful change."

In addition to attending the summit, Creel met with Transport Minister Marc Garneau in early June. Currently, on-board recordings are privileged and can be used only for post-occurrence investigations by the TSB. Canadian law would have to be changed in order for railroads to use the technology as an accident prevention tactic.

However, union leaders representing locomotive engineers and conductors in Canada have expressed concern about the potential for railroads using the LVVR technology to monitor their employees if the recordings are made available to people other than TSB investigators.