PENHOLD – The town is moving forward to stop train whistles.
Penhold town council passed a motion at its regular meeting on Feb. 24 and requested administration to move forward with the whistle cessation process to end train whistles at public grade crossings through the town. Council's move also means the town will enter into an agreement with CP Rail to meet all necessary requirements to eliminate future train whistles.
CP Rail will now advise Transport Canada of the initiative to cease train whistles through town. The estimated time for the approval of the town's desire to be train whistle free is about 30 days from its submission to Transport Canada.
The move follows an increasing number of local residents in recent years who have complained to the town and council about train whistles, most recently local resident Ken McCarthy, who has lived near the rail tracks since 2008. He made a presentation to council at the Feb. 24 meeting and said the frequency of train whistles has significantly increased and has become increasingly more disruptive.
“I have no problem with trains but what’s happened in the last two to three years is the trains are more frequent and especially at night,” McCarthy told council. “We could have the engineers that come by and they go, ‘toot toot’ and then carry on through and it may or may not wake you up, but then we got the engineers that start at the other end of town and they’re on that thing and they don’t quit,” he said.
He said they regularly disturb his sleep at night and he was recently awoken eight times by train whistles as the locomotives travelled through town.
“It’s getting to the point where you can’t sleep and it’s to the point where I don’t think it’s necessary with those gates at (Highway) 592,” he added.
“I think there’s a solution to this but if somebody doesn’t say something, nothing’s going to happen.”
Penhold CAO Rick Binnendyk said the town has spoken with CP Rail and pointed out several facts, including an increased number of trains with up to 18 coming through Penhold every day. He said there has also been an increase in length of trains of up to three kilometres.
“The last discussion we had…they were telling us that they can stop the whistle but the town will be required to put a barrier for the full length of the community,” explained Binnendyk.
There are specific areas that have to be addressed, he added.
Those areas include:
* A citizen or community group expressing interest to stop whistles.
* The town consults with the railway company.
* The municipality and railway company assess the crossing.
* The municipality and railway company agree the crossing meets requirements.
* The railway company notifying Transport Canada.
* Informing the municipality within 30 days it has arranged to have the whistling ceased at the crossings.
* The municipality and railway company share the responsibility for monitoring and maintaining the conditions that support the end of train whistles at the crossings.
