Some Quinte West residents are making noise about the disruptive sounds of train whistles at railway crossings in the city.
Brookshire Meadows resident Greg Whitney led the charge on Monday, telling councillors the noise from trains crossing at 2nd Dug Hill Road is having an effect on residents’ quality of life, along with property values.
Council has decided to have the public works committee revisit the issue and look at steps towards issuing a “stop whistles order”, but Director of Public Works Chris Angelo says that can only be done if a consultant determines the crossing is safe.
Angelo adds, the public works committee had previously decided against a $6,000 consultant’s study on that specific crossing, but now councillors want to expand that scope.
Quinte West Council meets on July 15, 2019. (Photo: David Foot / Quinte News)
Angelo says one thing working in favour of the 2nd Dug Hill crossing is that it’s the only one in the city equipped with “constant warning protection”, which is essentially an alarm that goes directly to the train operator if there is an issue with the safety equipment there.
He says other crossings in the city don’t have that feature and may need to be upgraded, at a cost of roughly $500,000 per crossing, in order for a stop whistle order to be put in place.
That cost can sometimes be funded 85% from Transport Canada, another 12.5% by the municipality and the remainder by the railway authority.
Angelo is hoping to have that report ready, with some options for the public works committee to discuss and decide on, by the next meeting on September 10.
