Over the Family Day long weekend, the Federal Transportation Minister amended the Ministerial Order pertaining to speed of trains in Canada.

Marc Garneau issued the order after the second rail derailment at Guernsey, east of Saskatoon, earlier this month.

The speed limit for key trains is now limited to 56 kilometres per hour in metropolitan areas. Outside of metropolitan areas where there are no track signals, the speed limit is approximately 65 kilometres per hour.

Higher risk key trains are unit trains where tank cars are loaded with a single dangerous good commodity moving to the same point of destination or trains that include any combination of 80 or more tank cars containing dangerous goods. The speed limit for higher risk key trains is now limited to 40 kilometres per hour where there are no track signals. In metropolitan areas, the speed limit is 48 kilometres per hour unless there are no track signals and then the speed is also limited to 40 kilometres per hour.

The new Ministerial Order will remain in effect until April 1st.