Thank you, Jean.
There have been some incidents, such as the one which happened last summer in the Lac-Mégantic region, which lead us to rethink the way we do things. These incidents also help us to bring down our tolerance to risk, which is sometimes too high.
For several years now, Via Rail has developed a real safety culture which involves each and every member of the organization.
My background is in human resources. I've spent most of my career in human resources. One of the main aspects of my job is not only to make sure that compliance is part of our organization, but that we bring a safety culture. It's easy to say that we have a safety culture, but bringing a safety culture is something that takes years. It takes strong dedication from everybody, especially the top management.
We have therefore been proactive in adopting measures to prevent tragedies like the one in Lac-Mégantic, from happening.
For instance, prior to the Lac-Mégantic event we never left unattended trains on the main line or a siding. Every train that starts its journey has two locomotive engineers in charge, and that practice has been in place since the foundation of our corporation. Every locomotive is now equipped with an outward-facing camera, and we have just started testing some voice recording devices.
The major reason for train accidents, unfortunately, is human error. We spend a lot of time with training, performance management, mentoring, coaching, etc., to reduce human errors across the organization. But it is imperative that we continue to invest in technology that will not only help us do a good investigation after the fact but will mainly and more importantly facilitate the job of locomotive engineers. We are right now working on different technologies that we believe will make very significant steps in that direction.
We are determined to raise safety standards even more. We have invested, thanks to the economic action plans of the Government of Canada, $80 million to do so by introducing various improvements to our infrastructure, more efficient procedures, and new technologies.
For instance, we've raised the maintenance standards of our locomotives to meet the highest international level. We've made countless improvements, from security fencing to signage, crossing upgrades, and targeted public education. We've closed, on our own infrastructure, 70 private crossings in the past three years. These are crossings on farms and parkland, many of them unprotected. We reach out to each landowner and encourage them to apply for a Transport Canada grant to close their crossing.
We recently began installing train telemetry systems and GPS technology aboard our trains. They are already providing us with rich data about train handling that will help us not only reduce fuel consumption, but more importantly, improve safety. Using a combination of telemetry, wireless communication, and GPS technology, we're developing our own form of assisted train control. The goal is to provide assistance to the locomotive engineer during critical tasks and minimize the risk of human error, as I said.
Let me give you an example.
In collaboration with the local health and safety committees, and along with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, whom I am happy to see here today, Via Rail has helped to identify throughout the country many higher-risk zones in order to help prevent the higher potential for incidents in those areas.
Furthermore, we have integrated and extended our safety culture into a comprehensive, risk-based approach. VIA Rail is today highly committed to risk governance. The risk includes train accidents, railway crossings, trespassing incidents. It is a testament to VIA Rail's safety culture that in addition to having an already sound and proven SMS or safety management system, VIA Rail's management and board of directors decided to put this risk at the top of their priority list in the organization.
These decisions and interventions have helped to improve safety throughout our operations. The combined effect of the initiatives I have just described have allowed Via Rail to record its best safety record in 2013.
In 2009, there were 3.6 incidents per million miles involving our trains. In 2013, there were only 1.3 incidents per million miles. This means that, throughout our network, there were eight incidents only in one year. This represents a decrease of 64 % compared to 2009.
This more positive record happened because every day we try to find ways to prevent accidents from happening. The entire raison d'être of our actions is to never have any victims or serious injuries, or at least the fewest number possible.
There was another encouraging result in 2013. Since 2009, the number of incidents at ties or crossings fell by nearly half. Put another way, we saved lives and would like to do better still.
The main reason is because we focus on prevention and because we managed our safety systems only through solid partnerships with stakeholders who are just as dedicated. The enviable record we have today was achieved thanks to our leadership and our sustained and well-established collaborations, both internally and externally.