July 20, 2015 – The RVHQ (le Regroupement Vigilance Hydrocarbures Québec) and AQLPA (Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique) condemn the reaction of the Central Maine and Quebec Railway company (CMQ) to the findings of the independant expert, Mr Vandersleyen, who inspected the rails at the request of concerned Mégantic citizens. The two organizations would also like to know what happened to the 20 million dollars that the CMQ claims to have invested in railway security and the improvement of other infrastructures over the last year. ” instead of attacking this expert, the CMQ would do well to take the time to listen to the warnings and investigate the allegations of Mr Vandersleyen”, says Jacques Tetreault, spokesperson for the RVHQ. The findings on the examined sections of the rail line are in fact surprising and very alarming. ” On which parts of the rails did they invest the money ?” asks Alain Brunel, director of AQLPA. ”Certainly not on the sections which run beside the Montignac school or the housing developments adjacent to the railway tracks.”
The state of these rails is to say the least, catastrophic, as several journalists have recently revealed. In an article that appeared in La Presse the 15 of July, the CMQ said it was shocked to learn that an independent expert had proceeded with an unauthorized inspection of its installations. ”This reaction borders on indecency, asserts M Tetreault. The company should instead act in cooperation with the local people to prevent another derailment.” The population of Lac-Mégantic is still in shock from this rail catastrophe which caused 47 deaths only two years ago. Many citizens are still affected by psychological problems. One local resident has notably told us she is unable to sleep at night since the accident. ”When I go to bed in the evening, I don’t know if I will awake next morning ”, she confided. It is understandable that the people of Mégantic are concerned with the train traffic and above all with the safety of the rail tracks and it is therefore perfectly legitimate that the worried citizenry should ask for an independent expert after demanding in vain an assessment from Transport Canada.
The RVHQ and AQLPA consider the reaction of the company an insult to the people of Québec. They believe that the respect for human life should trump the company’s bottom line. ”Do we need another derailment and more deaths to understand that this rail line was not intended for this type of transport and there is a need for major repairs? ” says an indignant Jacques Tetreault.