The CEO and interim president of Ontario Northland is optimistic that the agency can get much needed work to retrofit rail cars.
Between now and 2025 thousands of cars need to meet new standards following the Lac Megantic rail disaster two years ago.
Corina Moore says the ONTC’s refurbishment shop is a world class facility that can do the work.
“They’ll need an organization like Ontario Northland,” says Moore. “We’ve already been in communication in talking to these, in fact some have already been at our shops, to do a lot of that maintenance. It’s work that we can do now, it’s actually in the industry called a tidal wave; there’s that much business that’s coming because of these retrofits.”
A key recommendation is rail cars need to be doubled walled with an additional steel plate that’s about half inch thick. The reinforced cars would reduce the chance of oil spills in case of future derailments.