Montreal-Lac-Magetic, as citizens of Q, marked the 12th anniversary of a rail disaster, killing 47 people when a fugitive train derailed and collapsed in the city, a lawyer warned that there is a need to do more to ensure railway safety.
On Sunday, the city landed the flag for half mast, placed flowers and held a moment of silence to celebrate the tragedy of July 6, 2013.
Officials also asked that the railway company does not run the train through the area outside the honor of the victims.
But a spokesperson of a citizen Railway Safety Group believes that it has not been enough to ensure that some 6,000 residents of the city are protected from future disasters.
Robert Belleflaler says the trains have become long and heavy, while a long -standing bypass has not been constructed to remove them from the city core.
Beleflaer said, “Earlier, trains were about 80 wagons on an average … trains are now more than 200 wagons, with large locomotives over 15,000 feet long, which weighs often more than 150 tonnes.”
These “Monster” trains are traveling on rail lines manufactured between 1880 and 1920, “for trains that were very light and very young,” said Bellafler.
He believes that trains are now more dangerous than the early 2000s, and “it is not just lacquer-magnetic that is at risk.”
In recent months, he said that citizens have focused on wearing and erosion around the railway culverts near the entrance of the city, which “is nothing to assure the citizens,” said Bellafler. Canadian Prashant Census City Railway, which did not respond to the request of the comment, sent the workers to the site, he said.
Details of the 2013 derailment and fire destroyed many people in the city, forced around 2,000 people to vacate their homes and dropped some six million liters of crude oil in the environment. The disaster occurred when a brake failed on a train parked in a nearby Nentas and fell down from a slope and exploded in the city’s heart.
In 2018, federal and provincial governments committed for joint funds for a rail bypass to send trains around the city of LACK-MEgatic. While the land was expanded in 2023, the Canadian Transport Agency has so far requested additional information for the construction of greenlight and the environmental impacts of the project.
Some of the citizens in Lac-Magetic and neighboring communities have also been opposed to the bypass, citing concern along the route, cost and potential losses for wetlands and water supply.
Transport Minister Christia Freeland on Sunday issued a statement marking the anniversary, and “saluting the courage of an entire community, which continues to rebuild himself with year -to -day, dignity and flexibility.
He said that the bypass was one of his priorities, and promised to work with communities until it was completed.
Bellafler said for his share that Freeland is the sixth federal transport minister to make such promises.
“At that time, the years pass,” he said.
This report of Canadian Press was first published on 6 July 2025.
Audrey Sanikopolos and Morgan Lori, Canadian Press
