CN Rail service has resumed after a massive derailment involving 60 cars hauling potash on Monday near Hunter Creek. The tracks were cleared by Wednesday and debris is still being removed.  There are no reports of injuries and environmental experts are monitoring the site.  CN says it will continue to engage in the cleanup effort with local stakeholders as well as First Nations. The cause of the accident remains under investigation and drone footage of the accident site is available.

On Sunday evening a fire tore through Pier Park in New Westminster, southeast of Vancouver. The old wooden pier, urban beach, and volleyball courts have been destroyed. The new part of the park that was reconstructed and rebuilt eight years ago, including the festival lawn concession stand and playgrounds, have been saved. The coast guard was unable to deploy a containment boom on the water due to the impact it would have had on on-water firefighting efforts, and has issued a Navigational Warning for the Fraser River as a significant amount of large, wooden debris continue to drift down the Fraser.  The incident worsened the poor air quality already in the Lower Mainland due to wildfires south of the border.  A suspect has been identified and is facing arson-related charges.

Canadian Pacific Railway and Maersk are partnering to build and operate a transload and distribution facility in Vancouver to expand CP's and Maersk Canada's supply chain options for customers. The CP transload facility will be an expansion of CP's existing Vancouver Intermodal Facility and thus will benefit from turnkey rail infrastructure. The move is intended to allow them to move e-commerce and other goods out of the port in a tight warehousing market where marine terminals can quickly become constrained. The facility is set to open in 2021.

One of the new agricultural product silos installed at Fibreco Terminal in North Vancouver had a structural failure on Friday afternoon. The silo involved is 115 feet (35 metres) high and has capacity for up to 3,500 metric tonnes of cargo.   There were no injuries and the area was quickly secured and evacuated. The manufacturer of the commercial grain storage bin, Ag Growth International, said in its statement the bin that collapsed is part of a new product line it developed for two commercial projects, adding 15 of the bins are located at Fibreco and an additional 20 have been manufactured for another customer but have not yet been commissioned.  AGI has said, “The cause of and any responsibility for the incident have not yet been determined” and the “recovery, investigation and remediation may take a number of months to complete.”

The Cruise Industry Association of BC (CIABC) is hosting a silent auction to help cover costs this year, as they opted not to charge for memberships in light of COVID-19 pandemic and cancelled cruise season this year. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Food Bank (Vancouver & Victoria Food Banks), helping others in need. To support the auction, visit: https://www.32auctions.com/CIABC2020

Canada and the United States have agreed to extend the temporary restriction of all non-essential travel across the Canada-U.S. border until October 21, 2020.

Transport Canada is joining forces with Operation Lifesaver again this year to help #STOPTrackTragedies and increase awareness about the dangers surrounding rail property and trains. Today, Minister of Transport, the Honourable Marc Garneau, highlighted the launch of Rail Safety Week 2020, which runs until September 27. This national annual event increases awareness of safety around railway property and trains. It also underlines Government of Canada and industry achievements to make our railway system safer for Canadians.

A pier along Seattle’s waterfront partially collapsed last weekend as crews were demolishing portions of it, injuring two workers. Pier 58, supports the a park between the Seattle Aquarium and a ferris wheel. It gave way roughly a month after officials discovered it had moved several inches away from the land. When workers were on site, a monitoring alarm system triggered an evacuation, however two workers fell in the water. Both men were rescued and evacuated. Officials have now decided to accelerate the removal of the pier.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has awarded contracts to private sector companies as part of a project to demonstrate the use of long-range unmanned surface vessels for naval operations. The contracts were awarded to Applied Physical Sciences Corp., Gibbs & Cox Maritime Solutions, and InMar Technologies. Specifically, the companies will be working on a program called Sea Train. This follows news last week that contracts totaling nearly $42 million were awarded to six companies to study adding large unmanned vessels to the U.S. Navy fleet.

A study by CE Delft, titled ‘Comparison of CO2 emissions of MARPOL Annex VI compliance options in 2020’, has found that CO2-emissions associated using Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems vary between 1.5% and 3% for a number of representative ships. In many cases, the emissions caused by producing low-sulphur fuels for these ships are higher, depending on the quality of the low-sulphur fuel, the refinery and the crude oil slate.

Cosco Shipping and OOCL have suspended planned Sept. 15 general rate increases (GRIs) on the eastbound trans-Pacific trade while other major container lines are pushing forward with GRIs that are slightly lower than they had announced. The changes come in response to comments from Chinese regulators, urging major container lines to add capacity and be less aggressive in raising their rates as US imports from Asia continue to increase.

Several international freight transport and cargo handling organisations have come together to address the production of new guidance on packing standards for freight containers and other cargo transport units. The Container Owners Association, the Global Shippers Forum, the International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association, the TT Club and the World Shipping Council are working together on a range of activities to further the adoption and implementation of safety practices throughout the global supply chain. The group is seeking to improve the safety, security and environmental performance throughout the logistics supply chain.

Fidelity International, an Investment group, is urging for the crewing crisis to be addressed. The company believes that prohibiting seafarers from disembarking during the pandemic puts the health and safety of workers at risk, which in turn, add to the pressure on global supply chains. They argue that while regulations are in place which indicate acceptable contract lengths, many seafarers are not in an economic situation to feel comfortable or have the leverage to push back when those regulations are not met.  

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of including greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector in the European Union’s carbon market from 2022. The lawmakers said the bloc’s carbon market should be expanded to include emissions from voyages within Europe, as well as international trips which start or finish in an EU port. This would force shipowners to buy EU carbon permits to cover these emissions. The EU parliament will formally approve its position with another vote on Wednesday.

Several organizations from around the globe have come together to offer a webinar discussing the current crew change crisis. Speakers will include heads of UN agencies, governments, multinational corporations, and shipowner and seafarer representatives, who will discuss the present crisis and raise awareness for the important and unsung role of seafarers. The webinar will take place on Sep 24, 2020 08:00 AM in Eastern Time. Access the registration page here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_goh0H-ECT_usKeV9fliKqg