SOR/2026-141 compliance: what Canada’s new railway training rules mean for your frontline

Axonify’s daily microlearning and real-time readiness signals turn training into proven performance on the job. Canada’s new railway training rules now ask railways to show that kind of readiness, with scored evaluations, renewed certificates and training records kept for at least six years. And the rules reach beyond Canadian railways: any railway company operating on federally regulated track in Canada is in scope, wherever it’s headquartered.

The Railway Personnel Training and Qualifications Regulations were published July 1 2026. They come into force July 1 2028. That gives you a two-year runway to rebuild how your frontline is trained, certified and tracked.

The rules add two new critical positions, crew resource management, new types of training, tougher certification and strict record-keeping. For a lean, high-turnover frontline, that’s a heavy lift.

The good news? Two years is enough time to turn SOR/2026-141 compliance into real readiness—if you start now.

What SOR/2026-141 compliance requires

SOR/2026-141 sets new training, certification, on-the-job training and supervision standards for railway workers in positions critical to safe railway operations. Formally, it’s the Railway Personnel Training and Qualifications Regulations.

The Transport Canada announcement confirms these rules replace the Railway Employee Qualification Standards Regulations, which came into force in 1987.

The consolidated Railway Personnel Training and Qualifications Regulations come into force on the second anniversary of publication—July 1 2028. So the clock is already running.

Here’s what changed between the old rules and the new ones.

Treat this as the floor. Passing a test two years from now is the bare minimum, not the goal.

Who and what the regulation covers

The scope is broader than many expect. The regulation applies to any railway company operating on federally regulated track in Canada, regardless of where it’s headquartered. According to the Canada Gazette, Part II, Transport Canada’s analysis covers 21 Canadian railway companies and roughly 16,100 workers in these positions, and it expects five US-based companies to be affected too.

There’s one narrow exemption. It covers crews that start from a US home terminal and enter Canada only to reach a terminal or turnaround point within 24 km of the border, while holding a certificate issued by a US railway company. Operations beyond that are in scope.

The rules apply whether someone is an operational employee, a contractor or a management employee, so your scope reaches beyond direct employees.

The rules name six positions as critical to safe railway operations.

• Locomotive engineer
• Conductor
• Transfer hostler
• Yard person
• Remote control locomotive operator—newly added to the list
• Rail traffic controller—newly added to the list

The last two positions are new. If your operation runs remote control locomotives or a control center, you have roles to certify that the old rules were never touched.

The five changes that will stretch your training program

Five shifts will put the most pressure on a distributed frontline. Each one adds an obligation—and an operational reality you have to plan for.

1. Six critical positions instead of four

The 1987 rules covered four safety-critical positions. SOR/2026-141 adds two more: remote control locomotive operator and rail traffic controller.

That’s a new group of people to bring into your training program and they don’t work like a road crew. Remote control locomotive operators work in yards. Rail traffic controllers work from a control center, managing train movements across a territory. One training format won’t fit both.

Start by sizing the gap: how many people hold these roles today, what training they already get and what it will take to certify them by July 2028. Mobile microlearning helps here, reaching people in a yard or at a console with the same program.

2. New employees must be able to reach an experienced hand

Workers with less than two years’ total experience in a safety-critical position face a new support rule. While on duty, they must be able to contact a colleague who holds a certificate for the same position and has at least two consecutive years’ experience.

Read that closely. It’s a contact requirement, not physical pairing. A new worker needs access to trusted help, not a shadow on every shift.

On a spread-out frontline, making that contact easy is the challenge. Axonify’s built-in chat and communities give newer workers a direct line to experienced colleagues, wherever they’re working. For quick questions, Max Assistant, Axonify’s AI assistant, gives instant, trusted answers in the flow of work, so a newer employee doesn’t have to track someone down every time.

3. Three new types of training: continuing, familiarization and renewal

The rules also establish three types of training the 1987 rules didn’t define. Each one has its own trigger.

• Continuing training. When any part of your knowledge-based or on-the-job training changes, certificate holders must receive continuing training as soon as feasible.
• Familiarization training. Before a certificate holder carries out their duties for the first time and again before they work in an assigned area they haven’t worked in for 12 months. It covers handling equipment, applying operating rules and special instructions, the physical characteristics of the territory (like grade crossings, grades and curves) and at least one practice trip.
• Renewal training. Certificates expire every three years. Before a certificate is renewed, the worker must complete knowledge-based training again.

Put together, training stops being a one-time event. Every rule change, new territory and certificate cycle triggers more of it, across a frontline spread over shifts, yards and terminals. That’s hard to keep up with through classroom sessions alone.

Short, targeted microlearning can get an update to the right roles as soon as something changes and prepare workers for a new area ahead of their practice trip. Daily reinforcement keeps knowledge fresh across the three-year certificate cycle, so renewal becomes a check-in, not a cram.

4. Crew resource management built into training

Crew resource management or CRM, must now be part of every railway company’s training program and Transport Canada’s analysis says it should run through all levels of training. It covers threat and error management, interpersonal communication, situational awareness, leadership, teamwork, problem solving and decision making.

CRM targets human factors, not technical steps. Transport Canada’s analysis notes that in 2022, 86% of the factors assigned to non-main-track collisions were human factor-related.

Here’s the hard part. You can’t teach teamwork or decision making with a slide and a checklist. Human skills get stronger when people rehearse real moments, not when they read about them.

Practice is only half of it. Supervisors also need to see CRM in action. With Axonify Checkpoint, routine walkthroughs become structured checks against your standard, like how a crew communicates during a handoff. When something falls short, follow-up is triggered automatically, so findings move straight to corrective action.

5. Exams, evaluations and records you have to prove

Certification now requires a mark of at least 80% on the knowledge-based exam and on the on-the-job evaluation. Certificates are valid for three years and expire on the third anniversary. Workers who haven’t performed the duties for 12 months or more can’t resume them until their certificate is renewed.

An exam score is a snapshot, not proof of day-to-day readiness. That’s why you need real-time readiness data on knowledge and confidence—so you know who’s ready now, not just who passed once.

Proof doesn’t stop at the score. You must keep a training record for each worker for at least six years. It has to be available to the Minister on reasonable notice.

Transport Canada says it typically takes a graduated approach to enforcement. Actions can range from a letter of warning to an administrative monetary penalty of up to $250,000 under the Railway Safety Act, or prosecution for the most serious offences. Paper binders and manual sign-offs break down fast at scale.

A continuous compliance program with automatic, per-person tracking beats manual record-keeping. When a record is requested, it’s ready.

Compliance is the floor. Readiness is the goal.

A worker can pass an 80% exam in 2028 and still forget key steps by the shift that matters. Knowledge decays without reinforcement. That’s the real risk the regulation can’t fix on its own.

The gap is bigger than most leaders think. Axonify’s 2026 research found a 31-point gap between what leaders believe reaches the frontline and what workers say they actually receive. SOR/2026-141 compliance won’t close that gap by itself.

This is where the AI-powered frontline enablement platform does the work compliance alone can’t. It unifies microlearning, guided execution and insights into one connected system.

Daily microlearning keeps safety-critical knowledge fresh between training and the moment it’s needed. It’s safety training that sticks, not a once-a-year event.

For the human side, Max Coach lets workers practise realistic scenarios, build confidence and close knowledge gaps before they’re on the job. That’s a natural fit for the communication side of CRM. Managers then use real-time readiness and confidence signals to deliver targeted coaching where it’s needed most.

How to get ready before July 2028

Use the two-year runway as a head start, not a deadline scramble. Here’s where to focus.

• Audit your current program against the five changes while you still have time.
• Map the six safety-critical positions and flag everyone with under two years’ experience.
• Build CRM and scenario practice into the training you already run.
• Set clear triggers for continuing, familiarization and renewal training, so a rule change, new territory or expiring certificate never slips through.
• Move records off paper to automatic, per-person tracking.
• Set up continuous reinforcement so knowledge stays fresh through 2028 and beyond.

Start now and you won’t just pass an inspection. You’ll build a frontline that performs safely on every shift, at every site. That’s the difference between a certificate on file and a worker who’s ready.

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