RAC honors leaders in safety, environmental innovation

The Railway Association of Canada (RAC) has named Cando Rail & Terminals and Metrolinx its 2025 RAC Safety Award recipients; both honorees, along with CN, were also awarded RAC's Environmental Award. 

RAC also recognized DecisionWorks with the new associate member award for the company's TrackSense data integration platform, which provides users with a single dashboard view of track geometry, environmental statuses and infrastructure analyses.

The RAC Safety and Environmental Awards annually spotlight innovative programs, technologies and practices that "strengthen safety culture, protect communities and enhance environmental performance," RAC officials said in a news release.

In the safety category, Cando Rail & Terminals was recognized for its Passing Knowledge safety education program. Using a podcast-style format, Passing Knowledge shares employee surveys, field observations and audit insights about best practices through a story format. Cando Rail & Terminals' Li-Ion 2025 project also was selected for the environmental award. The project involved retrofitting a legacy, non-Tier-compliant diesel locomotive into a fully electric, zero-emission unit.

RAC also selected Metrolinx's Red Zone Green Zone (RZ/GZ) program for the safety award. RZ/GZ has reduced risk for construction and maintenance workers in the rail corridor by improving control, planning and communication strategies, RAC officials said. For the environment award, RAC recognized Metrolinx's overhaul of its environmental management system (EMS). Metrolinx rewrote its EMS manual, redeveloped its EMS Aspects and Impacts Registry, involved a third-party review of the environmental legal registry and developed 11 new environmental performance standards.

Finally, the association recognized CN's annual spill drill-and-exercise program in British Columbia for its community impact. CN recently redesigned its annual spill drills to focus on meaningful connection with local stakeholders and community response teams. The Class I piloted the spill drill program in August 2023, bringing together 75 participants, RAC officials said.