By Allison Martell
TORONTO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Canada's transport regulator
has ordered Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd CP.TO to address a
new alleged safety violation after it found the company was not
doing a mandatory brake safety test on some of its trains in
Western Canada, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
An inspector from Transport Canada told the company in the
Sept. 3 letter that it had confirmed CP was not doing a required
emergency brake test on trains originating in Moose Jaw, a town
in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan.
"This information has been confirmed by conversations with
Moose Jaw mechanical supervisors and staff that this is the
current process," wrote the inspector in the letter.
The test checks whether when emergency brakes are activated
from the locomotive controlling the train, they are actually
applied on the last car of that train, the letter said.
The letter follows revelations from June that CP was under
investigation for allegedly failing to apply adequate brakes
when parking a train carrying oil on a mountain slope in British
Columbia.
Emergency brakes and railway safety have been areas of
special concern since July 2013 when a runaway train, operated
by the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Canada Railway Ltd and its
affiliate, crashed, killing 47 people and destroying buildings
in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic.
In an internal newsletter on Thursday, the union
representing CP's rail car mechanics said it told the regulator
about the latest issue after the company instructed workers to
stop doing the emergency brake test on the last car of trains
from Moose Jaw.
The regulator asked CP in its Sept 3 letter to provide
details of action to correct the alleged violation of Canada's
Railway Safety Act within 14 days.
The regulator and CP were not immediately able to answer
questions about the letter.
(Writing by Mike De Souza in Calgary; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama)