The Transportation Safety Board says there are troubling similarities between a recent fatal train crash in Ontario and another derailment in Quebec two years ago.

During a Tuesday news conference in Quebec City, board officials said Canadians have reason to fear rail safety, as they released a report into the February 2010 crash that injured seven people in St-Charles-de-Bellechasse.

The TSB said the 2010 crash had a number of causes including poor visibility because of snow, outdated technology that leaves open the possibility of human error, and improper sharing of medical data that could reveal issues such as sleep disorders.

The board said all of those factors contributed to the 2010 accident when a Via passenger train drove into a siding track at an excessive speed.

Excessive speed was also behind the Feb. 26, 2012 Via accident which killed three crew members in Burlington, Ont.

"The scenario is similar," TSB official Ed Belkaloul told reporters.

"There's obviously room for improvement. It's clear: when it comes to high-speed trains and passenger trains, the measures are insufficient, as this accident illustrates."

The TSB said Canada's rail system relies too much on human activity and has been too slow to update to a more automated system.

"In two years nothing has happened. As a result we have another incident in another major corridor in the greater Toronto area," Emile Therien, a longtime rail safety critic, told CTV News.

"We have problems and we should have very serious concerns."

Via spokesperson Marc Beaulieu told The Canadian Press that modernizing security systems would require a "massive investment," and the industry had no consensus to spend such a sum.

He noted that in the United States, upgrades are projected to cost $15 billion over the next few years.

"We're still at the discussion stage," he told CP.

Meanwhile, Via said in a release late Tuesday that it "accepts" the TSB's final report, and that it has "already implemented changes to its policies."

"Among other measures, medical records for locomotive engineers hired from CN and other companies are now transferred to Via," the statement said. "In addition, critical incident workshops were developed and attended by all VIA locomotive engineers. These have now been integrated into the recertification program for all locomotive engineers."

"Passenger safety is VIA's top priority, and the company supports any measure that could increase safety of its activities," Via added. "In this regard, VIA will also continue to participate in all discussions pertaining to added security precautions related to Canadian railway signals."

The NDP is calling for the federal government to make automatic breaking systems mandatory.

"The derailment does not have to happen if these automatic brake systems are in place," NDP Transportation critic Olivia Chow said.