Squamish residents who live along the railway tracks need to pull together if they want to silence trains, elected leaders say.
After receiving numerous complaints from the public, last year the District of Squamish contracted R.F. Binnie and Associates to see what was needed to keep trains quiet at the Amblepath railway crossing. Transport Canada has a public crossing checklist that must be met to eliminate the requirement for trains to blow their whistles before passing over roadways.
On Feb. 28, the report presented to Squamish council at its Committee of the Whole meeting came with some big numbers. If council wishes to remove train whistling at Amblepath crossing, $206,000 worth of upgrades are necessary.
This estimate includes signage, fencing and vegetation trimming at the main crossing, an emergency access crossing on the east side of the railway tracks and a 15 per cent contingency.
Because of the close proximity of Leski's crossing to the north, whistling will still be heard by residents of Amblepath unless that crossing also is upgraded, subject to a separate safety assessment, noted the report.
There are 10 railway crossings in Squamish. Bringing one up to standard to eliminate the need for train whistles doesn't make much sense when the others will remain the same, Coun. Susan Chapelle said.
"You would still hear the horn through all the others," she said.
If the district is to address a crossing it should be downtown, Chapelle added, noting the area has a growing residential population and is the heart of the community.
The district faces other bills that are more of a priority than a single railway crossing, Chapelle said.
The stratas of developments along the track could band together to pay for the upgrades, Coun. Ted Prior said. Many of the current landowners brought their properties knowing they border the railway track, he said.
"Where you have kids, you have to have the utmost safety," Prior said, noting the main requirement for Amblepath is the placement of fencing along both sides of the railway right-of-way.
Last year's traffic data showed that approximately 1,200 vehicles travel across the Amblepath crossing per day - approximately 80 per cent are passenger cars and the remainder two-axle trucks. Information provided by Canadian National Railway (CN) showed that no near-miss incidents or accidents involving damage to the gates have been documented at the Amblepath crossing since the active warning equipment was installed in June 2009.
Train whistles aren't heard in the District of West Vancouver. The North Shore municipality adopted its "sounding of train whistles prohibition bylaw" in 1958 under the Railway Amendment Act. The act has since been repealed and superseded by the Railway Safety Act, which sets out Transport Canada's safety regulations.
"Fortunately for West Vancouver, all 31 of its crossings have been grandfathered under the old legislation," the municipality's spokesperson Jessica Delaney said.
