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Railroad Drops Objection To $338M Oil Train Settlement Fund

Lac Megantic in 2013 following train explosion
Sûreté du Québec/Wikimedia
Picture taken from a Sûreté du Québec helicopter of Lac-Mégantic, the day of the derailment";s:

A Canadian railroad has withdrawn its objection to a $338 million settlement fund for victims of a fiery train derailment that claimed 47 lives in Quebec, removing the final obstacle to the fund's approval.
A Canadian judge on Thursday gave conditional approval to changes to the settlement agreement to grant some legal protections to Canadian Pacific, paving the way for final approval in a U.S. courtroom on Friday.

U.S. bankruptcy trustee Robert Keach said he hopes payments will be made to victims by year's end.

The settlement, worth $446 million in Canadian dollars, was the product of negotiations with about two dozen companies with potential liability.  Much of downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, was destroyed when the runaway train with 72 oil tankers derailed on July 6, 2013.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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