Canada Road & Rail Transport - Consist

When a train includes a railway vehicle containing dangerous goods for which a placard is required to be displayed, the person in charge of the train must prepare and give to a member of the train crew a consist, which is a document that contains information about the train and the dangerous goods being transported. The consist must be stored with the shipping document, with information kept up to date by the train crew.

The consist must include the following information for each railway vehicle containing dangerous goods for which a placard must be displayed:

• The numerical location of the railway vehicle in the train, numbering the first vehicle at the head of the train as 1, the next vehicle as 2, and so on, excluding the locomotive or locomotives wherever they are located in the train
• The reporting mark of the railway vehicle
• For a tank car, the shipping name or UN number of the dangerous goods in the tank car
• For a railway vehicle other than a tank car, the shipping name or UN number of the dangerous goods, if the railway vehicle contains only dangerous goods with the same shipping name and UN number; or the words "Dangerous Goods" or "Marchandises dangereuses," if it contains dangerous goods that have different shipping names or UN numbers

A carrier must be able to immediately provide to CANUTEC a copy of a consist whenever the train is in operation or is involved in an accident.

To learn more about Transporting Dangerous Goods in Canada visit our Transporting Dangerous Good by Road & Rail Online Training web page.