The 30 miles per hour has come from various rules. I referred to hazardous materials going through populated areas. I believe that speed limit is 35 miles per hour. A train passing us does not necessarily have to reduce its speed to 35, because it might be out of one of those populated areas.
We have boarding cars, white fleets, where we sleep--sleeper cars--that are adjacent to the track, eight feet away, the same as a work crew would be, and there are rules in CP's general operating instructions--which you may be familiar with, that's what they operate on--to reduce the train speed to 30 miles per hour when passing white fleets--within 30 feet of centre of track, which would mean the siding and the back track. We fought for the last two years with CN to adopt similar rules. They finally have issued a 30 miles per hour slowing to pass these white fleets. That's where the 30 miles per hour is coming from.
The work crews that I'm talking about are generally larger rail gangs, tie gangs, that are on the Kingston sub, which is double mainline track. The way they're protected is through a flagging system. There are two red flags. Trains are given orders to contact a contact person who is responsible for that area through the flags. Employees are warned that a train is coming, but they don't reduce the speed through the red flag. So they're aware. There are a lot of places out there where they can't clear, because of shoulders--or clear to a reasonable degree. I believe the minimum distance is 16 feet from nearest rail through their rail to maybe the shoulder. That's reduced when there are curves in the rail, and also at night, with reduced visibility. There are tripping hazards on their side, because they're changing ties and what not.
The protecting person for the red flags is a unionized employee. Safety suggestions have been made through job briefings that they reduce the speed to 30 miles per hour. They have done that. The guys have come back to me and other safety reps and said that they're very comfortable with the 30 miles per hour as opposed to the normal 65 for freight trains or the 100-mile-per-hour VIAs.
The company got word that they'd reduced the speed in the red flags. They came back and upped the speed again, saying that it's not necessary.