The cause of the Canadian Pacific train derailment in Invermere last week is still under investigation and may be for some time to come.

“These things can take anything from a couple weeks through months, even up to a year,” said Canadian Pacific spokesperson Kevin Hrysak, adding the exact length of time depends on the nature of the incident.

“It’s something that can take a fair bit of time — to gather all the information and analyze it,” said Mr. Hrysak. “We do take the incident seriously and are doing a thorough investigation.”

The Transport Safety Board of Canada is also conducting its own investigation into the incident, which like the Canadian Pacific investigation is still ongoing.

At total of 16 cars on the fully-loaded northbound train ended up off the tracks only several hundred metres east of downtown Invermere and not much more than a few dozen metres from the shores of Lake Windermere and the wetlands at lake’s north end at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday, November 25th.

Although all the cars remained upright, nobody was injured and none of the coal the cars were carrying was spilled.

The incident resulted in the line being completely closed for almost 24 hours before being re-opened to train traffic and as of press time crews were still working on cleaning up the site and repairing sections of tracks damaged.