Lessons learned: How Lac-Megantic helped put short lines on the continuous safety improvement track
7/27/2023
Editor's note: This article has been corrected to say that Ron Hynes — not Tom Murta — was the SLSI's first executive director.
By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
When an unattended crude-oil freight train rolled downhill at 65 mph and derailed in downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013, U.S. short-line leaders already had been in the early stages of exploring ways to help small railroads improve the safety of their operations.
Operated by Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, a short line, the train contained 63 tank cars carrying crude oil when it derailed, causing an explosion and fire that destroyed half of downtown Lac-Megantic's buildings and killed 47 people. The accident remains the worst freight-rail disaster in Canada’s history.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) ultimately determined that the accident was caused by improperly leaving a train unattended on a mainline; the failure to set a sufficient number of handbrakes; and the lack of a backup safety mechanism. The TSB, Transport Canada and rail regulatory departments and agencies in the United States recommended several safety improvement measures — some of which have been implemented and some that remain in the process — to make sure an accident like Lac-Megantic would never happen again.
The accident also kicked into high gear plans by the American Short Line Regional Railroad Association, Federal Railroad Administration and other U.S. federal transportation officials to create an institute that would assess safety of small railroads’ operations, make recommendations for improvement and educate their employees in better safety practices — especially when it came to transporting crude oil and other flammable and/or hazardous materials.
SLSI Executive Director Tom Murta (left) and staff member Harry Hopes (right) in 2020 provided instruction on how to work with manway covers, valves and fittings found on top of tank cars. The demonstration was part of an online hazmat training class SLSI offered. Short Line Safety InstituteIn late 2013, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx reached out to then-ASLRRA President Richard Timmons to discuss ways to improve crude-by-rail safety. In January 2014, Timmons sent a letter to Foxx proposing the establishment the Short Line Safety Institute. The FRA then provided two startup grants and Congress appropriated $2 million to help launch it.
The institute got off the ground in 2015, and in 2017 named Tom Murta its second executive director. The first executive director was Ron Hynes, from 2015 to 2017.
Murta worked in safety and operations compliance at CSX when the Lac-Megantic derailment occurred. Recently, he sat down for an interview with RailPrime to talk about how that disaster has affected the short-line rail industry over the past 10 years.
A ‘cookie-cutter approach’ wouldn’t do
Murta recalls Lac-Megantic like it was just yesterday. Railroads began exchanging information with each other as soon as they learned about the extent of the tragedy.
“It was a tragic day in the rail industry and the loss of life was really disturbing,” he says. “At the time I was working for [CSX] in the safety department. We immediately began talking about its impact on our railroad and the industry in general from the perspective of what can we do to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
CSX and other U.S. railroads reached out to Canadian rail officials in the days after the accident to offer personnel and other help.
“It’s a very small fraternity of people who deal with hazmat incidents and hazmat derailments,” Murta says. “I can't recall any time that [such an offer] was ever accepted, but the fact that we were willing to send people and help I thought showed a kind of unified front that others are willing to step up to help them recover and put the right practices in place.”
In 2018, SLSI launched a hazmat training program aimed at supplementing railroads' existing training protocols. American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association At the time, Murta already was steeped in rail-safety issues. He also had enough contacts in the short-line industry to know that taking a “cookie-cutter approach” to improving rail safety wouldn’t work due to the size differences between Class Is, regionals and short lines. Soon after Lac-Megantic, he was tapped to serve on an advisory board that helped develop the SLSI.
When it launched, the institute offered safety culture assessments to short lines and regionals. Today, the nonprofit corporation continues to conduct those assessments but also provides hazardous materials instruction and leadership development programs. Thanks to federal grants, the training is offered at no cost to the railroads. So far, the institute has conducted over 130 assessments at railroads of all sizes, with a few going through the process more than once at their request.
The process involves online surveys of employees, onsite interviews with employees, safety document reviews and field observations. When completed, SLSI gives railroad management an in-depth assessment of their railroad’s safety culture, as well as suggestions for tools, programs and training to make improvements.
“We look at a railroad’s operation from top to bottom; talk to the senior personnel on site and at all the levels of the organization so that everyone has input in the process,” Murta explains. “We look for opportunities and gaps in their processes that can be better, then we provide them with a road map of what our experts think could help them get to a stronger level of safety culture.”
Railroad managers and executives also may follow up with institute experts for assistance or guidance in making improvements.
“We provide what we view is a wholistic view of the safety code to the railroad, but also stick around to provide the resources to help them as much or as little as they need to make that improvement,” Murta adds.
For railroads that transport hazardous materials, for example, SLSI has expert instructors who’ll work with railroads to stay up to date on the latest hazardous materials handling procedures. The U.S. Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) provided the institute a grant for the SLSI to develop its hazmat program, which features on-site instruction, hands-on training and interactive experience-based discussions tailored to each railroad’s situation and needs. Covered topics include USDOT, Department of Homeland Security and job-specific regulations, as well as the reporting requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
SLSI also offers training in emergency preparedness, reporting and response to rail incidents involving hazardous materials. In March, the SLSI completed its first Assistance for Local Emergency Response Training (ALERT) program at the New Orleans and Gulf Coast Railway in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. During the event, the local community’s emergency responders — the local hazmat team and police and fire departments — and the railroad’s employees received instruction and training about what to do in the event of a hazmat rail incident. Again, the training is offered at no cost to the participants, thanks to a grant from PHMSA.
SLSI staff noted a jump in requests for its emergency preparedness following the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, of a Norfolk Southern Railway train carrying hazardous and flammable materials. In the more than 200 hazmat training classes SLSI has provided to short lines, the ability to train local first responders has been a consistent request, Murta says.
Short lines’ management has been receptive to embracing continuous improvement, Murta says.
“Short lines are small, so that makes them flexible and nimble,” he says. “We’re not dealing with bureaucracies, generally. We’re dealing with people who own these companies or people who’ve given the railroad management full authority to put better practices in place.”
One newer category of training SLSI offers is “Leading Forward,” a class that teaches leadership and communication skills to up-and-comers and managers at small railroads. Murta says SLSI has had “great success” with the program; classes fill up quickly when registration opens.
“We get a group of 20 to 24 railroad professionals together for a three-day training in how to communicate verbally and in writing,” Murta says. “It teaches them how to manage people through agreements or disagreements, how to get a consensus (among employees) and common decision-making.”
The third day focuses on how to put their newly acquired skills to use in leading their teams back at the railroad to embrace a strong safety culture. Participants learn how to put their “best foot forward” as leaders, he says.
In October, the SLSI will offer a new version of Leading Forward — a class that focuses specifically on communication and leadership skills for female railroaders in the male-dominated rail sector. The class will address some of the unique challenges some women in rail face.
“As we all know, there are not as many female leaders in rail as you have in other industries,” Murta says.
On getting better at what they do
Just as the SLSI’s mission is aimed at helping railroads operate safely, the institute’s staff seeks out ways to be better at what they do. For instance, the idea for the Leading Forward classes stemmed from an annual review the institute performs to identify opportunities for new programming. One opportunity Murta hopes to further develop is a “knowledge exchange” with senior rail personnel heading into the twilight of their careers.
“We want to make sure that we’re getting as much information out of those senior leaders to pass on to the next generation,” he says.
Research has shown SLSI’s efforts are making a difference. In May 2022, the institute announced the results of an FRA Office of Research, Development and Technology study that showed small railroads that participated in a second round of SLSI safety assessments experienced measurable overall improvement in their safety cultures. SLSI has published a white paper on the research findings and expects to publish another in September.
Murta acknowledges that since the East Palestine derailment occurred, the public is again highly focused on what can go wrong when trains transport hazardous materials. But the public may not be aware of the safety measures that railroads have implemented over the past decade since the Lac-Megantic disaster.
“It’s sad that accidents happened,” he says. “You never want them to happen, but occasionally they do. I think we need to focus on the fact that [railroads] operate safely each and every day. … We have a low injury and accident rate, and we continue to work on that. We learn from every accident that occurs — those that get media attention and those that don’t. Every accident goes through a thorough investigation. And we’re happy for that.”
Until there are zero accidents, there always will be room for improvement. To that end, SLSI is working on a pilot project involving the FRA, short lines and confidential close-call reporting. The institute is acting as a peer review team to evaluate the types of incidents reported, then prepare advice for the rail industry.
Says Murta: “I think as an industry and as professionals, if we keep looking at programs that help us become safer — whether it’s a big step or a small step — it’s a step forward that we have to continue to make.”