Safety is CN’s Core Value: Railway Age CEO Perspectives on Safety

Tracy Robinson

Safety is at the core of everything we do at CN. Leaning back into scheduled railroading has allowed us to optimize our resources while never compromising on safety. Streamlining our operations has not only improved our performance but has allowed for a more consistent and disciplined approach to our operations, resulting in noticeably improved safety through reduced accidents and incidents across our network.

In 2023, CN saw a record low injury frequency rate of .96 (per 200,000 person-hours), an improvement of 13% over the previous year. While we are proud of the hard work our team put in for this achievement, we can never celebrate safety when, in that same year, two of our team members didn’t make it home to their loved ones.

It’s a stark reminder that although we have come a long way, we have more work to do.

The best way for us to honor our fallen colleagues is to continue to prioritize safety, every minute of every day. This takes leadership and a safety culture that embraces and embeds commitment, not simply compliance.

The team at CN aims to be the safest railroad in North America. That’s why we believe that safety in our industry must continue its evolution. It must evolve beyond rules compliance to a way of life ingrained in our culture. Over the past decade, we have started to see a shift toward a culture that puts safety at the heart of railroading.

At CN, we aspire to ZERO: zero serious injuries, zero fatalities and zero harm. We believe that by providing the leadership, training, and resources necessary, we can achieve this ambitious goal.

Technology has been a game-changer for safety. We continue to increase our technological capabilities to nimbly assess, direct and fix potential hazards. At CN we have an extensive wayside detection network, utilizing more than 24 million data points per day on more than 2,800 detectors that are constantly monitoring our trains’ health. CN has also installed acoustic bearing detectors, which can identify bearings at risk before they begin to fail. We are embarking on a new journey with Broken Wheel Detectors, which use a combination of sensors, machine learning, and AI image processing to find at-risk wheelsets. Additionally, we have installed powerful sensors and AI technology into our Autonomous Track Inspection Program (ATIP) railcars, positioned on regularly scheduled trains, enabling 24/7 track inspection at normal speed. In 2023, our 11 ATIP cars inspected more than one million track-miles. These added layers of protection allow CN to correct issues in real time.

Field employees participate in regular hands-on training and daily job safety briefings. Our field employees also have a mobile technology application that enables real-time and voluntary, confidential reporting of near misses or safety hazards while helping CN take action and create a safer working environment.

This feedback loop with our field employees is so important. It allows us to better understand and track how the terrain is changing along our network. It also drives home that we all have a role to play in safety.

Technology advancements are enabling us to do great things. However, we need to focus on making sure everyone knows how this applies to them and how to use the tools to keep them safe.

Since 2021, CN operation employees have completed more than 8,800 Safety Leadership training courses, from workshops to in-field training. At the heart of these courses is a simple tenet: Leaders create the culture that determines the behavior, and behavior drives safety. This is how we build a safety culture based on values versus compliance.

In 2023, we had thousands of employees participate in CN’s first Safety Week. The week was an opportunity to have meaningful discussions about safety and recognize each others’ achievements and efforts to stay safe. Senior executives were deployed across the network and engaged with field employees as we all recommitted ourselves to a culture of safety and looking out for one another. I firmly believe that this is how we foster a culture of continuous safety improvement, building leadership and accountability amongst our teams.

At CN, we have an enormous privilege and responsibility to help move the economy across our network. While we have seen a major shift in safety across the industry, I firmly believe that the more we all put safety at the core of our operations, the more we can deliver better results for our clients and capitalize on new growth opportunities. But most important, we are making sure our colleagues get home safe and sound.