Railways
State of Safety 2025
Yearly Trends: Railways
We regulate railways that operate solely within British Columbia and have a Minister’s Certificate, Operating Permit, and Safety Management System accepted by the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit.
Provincial railways are subject to the British Columbia Railway Act, Railway Safety Act (BC), and adopted federal railway safety legislation. We regulate five different classes of railways: common carrier, heritage, commuter, industrial, and industrial sidings and spurs.
Note: Technical Safety BC does not issue railway installation permits.
182
Incidents reported to us in 2025
10
Injuries reported to us in 2025
206
Audits completed in 2025
Working with Track Contractors and Safe Management Implementation
Technical Safety BC’s railway program conducted a Town Hall meeting for railway track contractors in Kamloops in October of 2025. Track contractors are not a regulated entity provincially; however, their work impacts track safety at provincial railways. The meeting opened lines of communication between the track contractors and Technical Safety BC regarding our expectations for track inspections and work at provincial railways.
The railway program also wrapped up our Safety Management System implementation program for all provincial railways in 2025. All 144 provincial railways have now implemented the current version of the Safety Management System as provided in the federally adopted regulation. This project was first rolled out in 2022 by the railway program and involved all provincial railways submitting a compliant Safety Management System to Technical Safety BC.
Incidents
Railways are responsible for ensuring all hazards are properly managed for safe railway operations. We provide operational information detailing the consequences of unsafe conditions that can impact the safety of railway employees, the public, and the environment.
In 2025, 182 incidents were reported to us, a decrease of 5% compared to 2024. These incidents included 92 ranked as “insignificant,” 72 ranked as “minor,” and ten ranked as “moderate.” two incidents were ranked as “major,” and six were ranked as “severe.”
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Injuries
In 2025, ten injuries were reported to us, which is a decrease of 56.5% compared to 2024. Among the injuries, ten injuries ranked as “insignificant” and six were ranked as “minor.” one was ranked “moderate,” one was ranked as “major,” and two were ranked as “severe.” There were also eight confirmed fatalities, seven of which were a result of human-train contact on commuter line trains, and one was a train-human contact with a locomotive.
We receive injury reports and descriptions from operators or first responders at the time of, or immediately following, the incident. Injuries may develop after the initial reports were made to us, and the long-term effects of a resulting injury may not be recorded as part of our investigation. Since the State of Safety Report for 2023, we have changed our reporting to include all fatalities related to human-train contact in the data reflected below. The historical data presented here has been adjusted to reflect this change. We do not distinguish between accidental incidents leading to fatalities or if human-train contact was intended by the individual.
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