(Return tabled) Question No. 130 Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia: With regard to rail safety in Canada: (a) for the period of 2006-2012, which railways were permitted to operate with a single operator; (b) for the period of 2006-2012, which railways had permission to leave trains unattended for limited periods of time on main lines with or without an idling locomotive(s); (c) for the period of 2006-2012, which railways had permission to leave trains unattended for limited periods of time on side lines with or without an idling locomotive(s); (d) with regard to the railways in (b) and (c), under what specific conditions could the trains be left unattended; (e) what legislative or regulatory framework governs local emergency preparedness plans i ...[+++]n the event of a rail accident; (f) with respect to the plans in (e), (i) who is responsible for creating and executing such plans, (ii) by whom are they audited, (iii) how often are they audited, (iv) against what criteria are they audited; (g) by whom and how often are municipalities through which freight trains pass provided with regular reports on (i) the state of local emergency preparedness in the event of a rail accident, (ii) the state and maintenance record of the railway lines within their borders, (iii) the materials, hazardous or not, that are transported through their jurisdiction; (h) if reports referred to in (g) are not provided, why not; (i) how many of the DOT-111 railway tank cars and the DOD-112 tank cars are in use in Canada, for each year since 2006; (j) for each year since 2006, how many rolling stock and track safety inspectors were employed at Transport Canada, broken down by (i) province of work, (ii) oversight responsibility; (k) for each year since 2006, how many rolling stock and track safety inspectors employed by Transport Canada were responsible for inspections in (i) the Greater Montreal Area, (ii) the municipality of Pointe-Claire (iii) the municipality of Beaconsfield, (iv) the municipality ...

(n) "existing rail system" means the structure composed of lines and fixed installations of the existing rail system plus the rolling stock of all categories and origin travelling on that infrastructure;

With rail, special emphasis needs to be put on track infrastructure and rolling stock; in the new Member States spending on rolling stock ought not to be considered as an operational cost.

It's also important to note that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry made similar recommendations. They were very supportive of moving rolling stock rates to over 30%.

"existing rail system" means the structure composed of the railway infrastructures, comprising lines and fixed installations of the existing rail system plus the existing rolling stock of all categories and origin travelling on that infrastructure;

'existing rail system' means the whole of the existing railway network, consisting of railway infrastructure, including lines and fixed installations, and all categories of rolling stock regardless of origin which use the infrastructure.