Canada needs a public inquiry into the "ticking time bomb" of rail safety, says Peter Julian, the federal NDP transport critic.

"The Conservatives need to move immediately on a full public inquiry into rail safety in Canada," Julian said yesterday, reacting to a Toronto Star probe that shows the number of rail accidents rising each year and government bodies either unwilling or unable to investigate accidents and prosecute the railways.

"We've got problems with rail safety, increasing accident rates, transportation of dangerous goods going through heavily populated areas and going through environmentally very sensitive areas. We don't know what could happen next. Doing nothing is not an option."

The number of accidents has risen every year since 2002, hitting 1,246 last year.

Through a federal access to information request, the Star accessed a decade's worth of Transportation Safety Board accident reports.

There were 11,147 accidents reported to the TSB between 1996 and 2005. Almost all involved freight trains.

The TSB investigated only 1.3 per cent of those accidents. Between 1999 and 2005, Transport Canada, the federal regulator of the rail industry, prosecuted the railways seven times under the Railway Safety Act, earning five convictions.

Poor maintenance, human error, an overreliance on technology and staff cuts were contributing factors for the most serious accidents.

Canada's two largest freight train companies ? CN and CP ? say they are trying to solve the problem by investing in new technologies, hiring new staff, retraining staff, educating the public and re-investing in new rail, ties and ballast.

New federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon was in meetings yesterday and did not have time for an interview, said his spokesman Robert Greenslade. But Greenslade said "it would be a little premature to talk about a public inquiry. There need to be very sound reasons for public inquiries. The point is we take safety very seriously. When we notice things are not functioning properly and there are infractions of the rules, we go after them."

CN and CP have access to TSB accident reports prior to their publication so that they can ask for changes. They must submit a safety management system to Transport Canada every year. But Transport Canada investigators can audit CN's and CP's safety system only every three years.

"We take the safety of the rail system very seriously," said Greenslade.

"We do have inspection programs and audit programs in place to review the safety of the operations of the rail companies.

"We'll continue to work with the TSB, the companies, the railway association of Canada to continually improve safety performance."

Critics believe the government agencies are too cozy with the railways.

And they believe the railways put speed ahead of safety, leading to some disasters, such as a couple last August:

* Spilling half a million litres of heating oil and tens of thousands of litres of a toxic chemical known to cause cancer at a resort near Edmonton.
* Leaking caustic soda into the Cheakamus River in B.C., killing most of the fish stock.

"All the factors are there for one colossal bad accident, which could make all of these other accidents seem minor in comparison," said Julian.

"It's been a manifest failure to have the railways do their own safety policing."

He said the Liberals ignored the issue while they were in power, but he expected this minority Parliament to face it.

"I don't think self-policing on safety works because the dynamic in the railway seems to be: `Hey, we're creating record levels of profits, that's all that counts.'"