Could Toronto be the next Lac-Mégantic disaster? | The Council of Canadians

Could Toronto be the next Lac-Mégantic disaster? | The Council of Canadians

A poll released by Forum Research this weekend shows that two thirds of Toronto residents feel rail shipments of flammable crude oil should not be allowed through Toronto.

The Toronto Star Reports that,  "out of 1,271 Torontonians aged 18 years or older, 69 per cent said the
dangerous good should not be carried by rail through Toronto."

“Most Torontonians don’t know the train that exploded in  Lac-Mégantic was scheduled to pass through Toronto on the old CP rail  line north of Dupont St. a few days later,” said Forum president Lorne Bozinoff.

A leading rail transportation expert Greg Gormack, who has done research for CP, CN and the Canadian government, recently stated, “I’m not an alarmist, but a derailment can occur anywhere. What would happen if a train derailed say over the bridge across Yonge St. or Avenue Rd, right in the heart of the city? It would be cataclysmic!”
Even more alarming is numerous studies have indicated that the dangerous DOT-111 tank cars  — the type involved in July's fiery explosion at Lac Megantic, Quebec — caring highly flammable crude are, "trundling on rail lines through the heart of Toronto in aged tank cars widely recognized as substandard."  This mixture is more volatile than gasoline according to the recent Transportation Safety Board of Canada Report.
DOT-111 cars were flagged as problematic beginning in the 1990s due to their tendency to breach in a derailment. Yet, oil shipments by rail have increased dramatically in Canada to an estimated 140,000 in 2013, Bakkan crude which explosive than traditional crude.
"Also rising in number are the tank cars using the Canadian Pacific rail line that runs through Toronto from the Junction neighbourhood along Dupont St. before curving northward just west of the Don Valley."