Missed signal led to near-collision of GO trains in Burlington: TSB report

Commuters exit and board a GO train at the West Harbour GO station in Hamilton, Ont., Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. GO train service from Hamilton GO has been impacted by the lockout of workers at CN and CPKC, which has shut down freight rail service across the country. GO Trains continue to run from the West Harbour station but shuttle buses have been put in place to get commuters from the Hamilton Downtown GO Station to Aldershot Station in Burlington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says a near-collision between two GO trains carrying more than 400 passengers two years ago highlights the need for physical systems to stop trains that don’t respond to signals.

The board has released its report into the near-crash that took place near a GO Transit station in Burlington, Ont. on March 14, 2024.

The board says a commuter train that left Aldershot station passed by a signal telling it to stop, then ran through a switch and went onto a track where another GO train was travelling in the opposite direction.

It says both trains were stopped by their respective crews, avoiding a collision by about 167 metres.

Investigators say they found that the crew heading out from Aldershot station expected the other train to have already gone by and the signal to give them the go-ahead.

They say the conductor was focused on his tablet during departure preparations, while the locomotive engineer was dealing with equipment issues in the cab, taking attention away from the signal. As a result, the board says, they did not see the signal to stop.

“In this occurrence, a catastrophic collision involving 400 passengers was narrowly averted, underscoring the need for physical fail-safe train controls that can intervene when signal indications are not followed,” TSB chair Yoan Marier said in a statement.

“For more than 25 years, we have been calling on industry and regulators to expedite the implementation of physical fail-safe train control systems and put strong interim measures in place while these systems are being developed and installed.”

Since 2023, the TSB has investigated eight separate collisions or near-collisions where signal indications were not followed, it said.

Physical fail-safe systems automatically slow or stop a train when crews do not respond to signals, the board said. These systems have been fully implemented in the United States since 2020 on high-hazard routes, including those operated by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway Company, it said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2026.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press