Canadian Railroads > Renegade railcar runs border

I spotted this a few minutes ago on the Hamilton Spectator website
http://www.thespec.com/news/canada/article/789231--rogue-rail-car-rolls-undetected-across-border

Rogue rail car rolls undetected across border
No one noticed the rogue rail car cross the border from Niagara Falls, N.Y. to Niagara Falls, Ont., in the wee hours of Aug. 12.

Somehow, the rail car left the CSX rail yard on American soil and rolled across the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge before halting in the Niagara Via Rail station, which was closed for the night.

CSX didn’t notice. Neither the U.S. Customs and Border Protection nor the Canada Border Services Agency noticed. The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, owner of the bridge, didn’t notice.

In fact, the rail car went undetected until Via Rail employees reported the migrant boxcar to authorities when they arrived at work.

And though two weeks have passed, details remain scant as authorities investigate what happened.

“The incident . . . is being treated as an act of vandalism and remains under investigation,” CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said. He would not elaborate further but said the rail car, which is used to carry finished vehicles, was empty when it rolled across the bridge.

It likely crossed between 1 or 2 a.m., said Brent Gallaugher, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission’s manager of agency relations and security.

The CBSA refused to say what time it was alerted to the rail car’s appearance because the matter is “under review,” but the Niagara Regional Police Service was called at 12:47 p.m., according to spokesman Const. Derek Watson.

When the CBSA and the police searched the rail car — perhaps as long as 12 hours after it arrived — it was empty.

“The report came in initially as a suspicious runaway box car, but was quickly deemed not suspicious. The box car was empty, and could be described as an open car carrier railway box car,” Watson said in an email.

“We are confident it just got dislodged as cars were being moved into place on the U.S. side,” CBSA spokeswoman Jean D’Amelio Swyer said in an email.

CN Police are also involved in the investigation as CN owns the property where the rail car landed.

Incidents such as this are “extremely, extremely rare,” the bridge commission’s Gallaugher said. A box car has never crossed undetected in his 16 years at the commission, he said.

“This is highly untypical,” Gallaugher said. “We want to get together with the interested parties to make sure this doesn’t ever happen again.”

Rail traffic on the bridge is typically limited to two passenger crossings per day, one operated by Amtrak and one by Via Rail. Only Nexus card holders may cross the bottom part of the bridge by car, but it is only open between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The commission is responsible for security on its three bridges (Whirlpool Rapids, Rainbow and Lewiston-Queenston) and uses hundreds of surveillance cameras to monitor them, Gallaugher said.

Since this incident, the commission installed video cameras with an alarm that goes off any time a train crosses the bridge, he added.

Sensors on the American side are supposed to detect trains on the bridge and alert U.S. customs.
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I know some in the U-S are not happy with their political situation ... but running to Canada to escape isn't going to be much of an improvement, especially in Ontario!

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

No derails in the yard protecting the main, on the downhill side?

The citizens of both nations should be able to sleep tight tonight, secure in the knowledge that USC&BP, CBSA, the Niagara Bridge Commission, CSX and Amtrak and ViaRail are alert and on guard to protect our borders from incursions by "rogue rail cars."

Fritz in HSV,AL

navy5717th Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The citizens of both nations should be able to
> sleep tight tonight, secure in the knowledge that
> USC&BP, CBSA, the Niagara Bridge Commission, CSX
> and Amtrak and ViaRail are alert and on guard to
> protect our borders from incursions by "rogue rail
> cars."
>
> Fritz in HSV,AL

The fact that "dozens of video cameras" and presumably live inspection folks didn't notice the departing / invading rail car isn't the kind of thing that US and Canadian border patrols care to advertise. There's growing evidence that this whole 'enhanced security' thing is just kabuki theater.

Maybe we need a geosynchronus satellite equipped with motion detectors or predator drones to surveil the area. Or, a gate, with a lock on it.

<G>

Don't Amtrak and VIA Rail train crews change at Niagara Falls, ONT in both directions ?

Lackawanna484 Wrote:

There's growing evidence that this
> whole 'enhanced security' thing is just kabuki
> theater.


Gosh, ya mean someone in government would be less than totally honest with us?

BobE

A few years ago a yard job got over the hump and no air on the cars the engineer was unable to stop. Crossed the bridge and coupled at a slow speed to the head end of the Maple Leaf while it sat at the station.

The paid no attention to the renegade feight car - they knew it had a Nexus card.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The paid no attention to the renegade feight car -
> they knew it had a Nexus card.


BTW... Do crews regulary cross the border with the Nexus card?

Back in the early seventies, at PC"s Niagara yard, the west end switcher pulled west to drill out a cut of cars (all had been bled off) and the engineer could not control the movement with the independent. He jumped off the engine (a la 6666) and frantically started applying handbrakes. He stopprd short of the red signal..................and walked in my office (trainmaster) with both hands bleeding heavily.