News release

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released its investigation report (R20W0102) into the derailment of a Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) freight train that occurred near Ignace, Ontario in 2020.

On 25 May 2020, a CP unit grain train was travelling eastward at 46 mph on the Ignace Subdivision when 53 hopper cars derailed at Mile 12.8 near Ignace, Ontario. As a result, grain was released from several cars. There were no dangerous goods involved, and no fire was reported. No one was injured.

The investigation found that the track subgrade (the surface beneath the track) in the vicinity of the occurrence consisted of soft, saturated peat in an area with poor drainage. Its load-bearing capacity was likely exceeded, resulting in a sudden subgrade failure that led to the derailment. The operation of loaded high-capacity rail cars in the unit train created longer periods of cyclic loading, accelerating the deterioration of the inherently unstable track subgrade. Additionally, railway inspection procedures and technologies based on surface observations cannot measure underlying subgrade conditions, increasing the risk that impending subgrade failure will go undetected.

Following the occurrence, CP made improvements to the track infrastructure in the derailment area to help evenly distribute loading of the track subgrade and to counter differences in settlement through the derailment area.

See the investigation page for more information.