PPS - it also speaks to the priority and level of attention that the CN RTC center gives to passenger. CN‘s RTCs have lots of territory to cover and they won’t be attending to everything at once. You can be sure that if the RTC was expecting a westbound hot intermodal train, somebody would be worrying about how the two trains’ meet would be arranged. But because it’s only the Maple Leaf, whose time of arrival is uncertain and variable, and which can accept any amount of delay if its route isn’t clear, the RTC just lets whatever happens happen.
The situation is not a rule violation, and so long as everybody does their job properly and stays awake (as the GO crew clearly did) it’s not unsafe by traditional railroad standards. But it speaks to the level of attention to detail that passenger trains are given when on somebody else’s railroad. And it speaks to how the safety standards have indeed risen in recent years…. the whole idea of running heavily loaded passenger trains under Rule 105 principles, which was quite common in 1920, seems hard to accept any more.
I would also point out that thanks to the PTC push in the USA, the Maple Leaf’s locomotive would be equipped with loads of modern technology to keep its train within its route authority and separated from other trains. All that technology ceases to matter when the Maple Leaf enters the “dark” territory at the Falls.
- Paul
PPPS - removing the derail is not an option so long as the territory remains as is. It is a safety feature that has to be there by design, as under past/current operations that siding may be used to store cars or equipment. However, providing the proper keys so crews can operate it might be another possibility.
