Thursday’s early-morning train derailment two kilometres east of Guernsey, Sask., was the second Canadian Pacific Railway crude oil crash to happen near the small hamlet in less than two months.
The images were strikingly familiar: A dark stretch of rural Saskatchewan land, a fiery blaze and thick smoke billowing from train cars gone topsy-turvy.
“Another train by Guernsey!!” read the tag on one social media post.
Thursday’s early-morning train derailment two kilometres east of Guernsey, Sask., was the second Canadian Pacific Railway crude oil crash to happen near the small hamlet in less than two months.
The first occurred on Dec. 9, 2019, just after midnight. A Canadian Pacific Railway train hauling oil derailed west of Guernsey. At least 19 of its train cars leaked an estimated 1.5 million litres of crude — more than six times the amount of product that poured into the North Saskatchewan River from a Husky Energy pipeline in July 2016.
Drone footage of the second derailment on Thursday clearly showed at least two large pools of black sludge staining the snow-covered ground alongside Highway 16. Thirty-one of the train’s 104 cars derailed.
But no estimate of the latest spill has been released yet. The Transportation Safety Board deployed two investigators to the site on Thursday, but firefighters were still battling the blaze as of early Thursday afternoon, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).
Still, the clustering of two similar incidents only a few kilometres apart on the rail line’s Sutherland subdivision quickly drew notice and alarm.
Wow just a couple of months ago another one happened!! https://t.co/ycZW6jHrvB
“It is a concern that two derailments happened in that vicinity, absolutely,” said Marlo Pritchard, the president of SPSA.
Federal Transport Canada Marc Garneau simultaneously ordered that all large trains carrying dangerous goods on federal rail lines slow down their speeds — even as the speed of Thursday’s crashed train remained unclear.
December’s train was travelling about 72 km/h, which is the maximum speed on that section of the subdivision, according to the TSB.
Garneau’s countrywide order called for trains going through metropolitan areas like Saskatoon to cap their speed at 32 km/h.
On tracks everywhere else — including the portion of the Sutherland subdivision near Guernsey — trains can now only travel up to 40 km/h — a nearly 50 per cent reduction in maximum speed for that area.
“I am very concerned about the derailments of railway cars containing dangerous goods in the past 12 months,” Garneau said of his 30-day order.
In its own statement Thursday afternoon, CP said it had already slow