The Sept. 15 derailment near Ponton that killed one crew member and seriously injured another may have been caused by a washout.
Jerry Berriault, a regional senior investigator with the Transportation safety Board of Canada (TSB), which investigates marine, aviation and rail accidents, told CBC two culverts became blocked sometime between the last inspection and the accident, stopping water from flowing under the tracks and resulting in it washing away the ground supporting them.
The train was going about 40 kilometres per hour when it hit the washed-out section, described as raised bank 12 feet above the creek, rather than a bridge. Heavy rains in the area and a release of water upstream, possibly due to natural flows or beaver activity, contributed to the washout, the investigator said, and the train stopped abruptly when it hit it.
Murad Al-Katib, CEO of one of the companies that recently purchased the Hudson Bay Railway from The Pas to Churchill, said that the section of track was inspected twice in the week before the accident, with the most recent inspection taking place just two days prior.
The 38-year-old man who died as a result of the accident was a train conductor while the 59-year-old man who was airlifted to Winnipeg with serious injuries was an engineer. Both were from The Pas and they were trapped in the train for several hours following the crash, which happened 17 kilometres southwest of where the railway crosses Highway 6 near the junction with Highway 39.
Three locomotives and four rail cars, two carrying propane, went off the track. Diesel from one of the locomotive spilled into the Mitishto River.
Passenger rail service from Winnipeg to Gillam is suspended indefinitely, Via Rail said.
The accident occurred just one day after the federal government announced that it would provide $117 million in funding for the group that bought the railway and the Port of Churchill from OmniTrax, a deal that was announced just two weeks earlier.
