The town of Hampton has sent a letter to CN Rail asking for a review of track conditions and the speed at which trains travel through the community.

Mayor Ken Chorley says tracks at the town's main rail crossing are lifting off the bed as the train crosses over them.

Transportation Safety Board suggests old tank cars need to be replaced. He also says trains move through the community at a much faster speed than the 50 kilometres per hour permitted on town roads.

"There have always been people concerned with the speed of the train, but nothing dramatic until Lac-Mégantic and then this one up in Plaster Rock," said Chorley. "Then people start watching it a little more closely."

The speed limit for trains passing through Hampton is 64 kilometres per hour.

In a statement, CN says the tracks along the rail line through Hampton meet or exceed Transport Canada's standards and are inspected regularly.

There were two CN Rail derailments in New Brunswick in January. Cars carrying crude oil caught fire in a derailment near Plaster Rock on Jan. 7. On Jan. 26, several cars on a CN train derailed in Saint-Basile, near Edmundston. There was no fire associated with that derailment.

The Saint-Basile derailment happened on rail tracks across from Paul Emile Soucy's farm. Soucy says last summer CN workers put red paint on wooden ties to be replaced, but they never were.

"They don't fix it and they knew about it," said Soucy. "So somebody out there making too much money decided not to fix it. And they left it there."

The union representative for CN's track maintenance workers says CN does a good job on track maintenance.

"I do believe CN does consider it a high priority," said Mike Piche of the United Steelworkers.

"I don't see them consciously not repairing or maintaining their tracks."

Piche said it is not unusual for track inspectors to identify fail ties ahead of time that will need changing six or eight months later.

CN says the line through Saint-Basile is inspected at least twice a week and had been inspected two days before the Jan. 26 derailment.

The cause of that incident is still under investigation.