Ten years after a runaway train derailed and killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Que., residents are still waiting for a promised railway bypass, and they fear the increasing number of railcars carrying hazardous materials through their town will lead to another disaster.
Mayor Julie Morin says the trains transporting such things as propane, diesel and sulphuric acid have got longer, threatening to turn the city’s downtown area once again into a mess of charred ruins and twisted metal.
“We see it with our own eyes,” she said about the growing length of the trains travelling through the area, where on July 6, 2013, a train carrying 72 tank cars filled with crude oil derailed and exploded, killing 47 people and destroying entire city blocks….