Whistles away: Saint John hopes to quiet 2 more railway crossings

Longtime Saint John resident Terry O'Neill has nothing against the increased train traffic he's seen and heard for about ayear from his west end home if it means the Port of Saint John is getting busier.

But as a retiree who livesthree streets from the train track, and within earshot of two busy railway crossings at Sherbrooke Street near Montreal Avenue, and Sand Cove Road near Rocky Bluff Terrace he has some concerns.

The two crossings are not far apart from each other so when approachingtrains sound warning whistles, residents of nearby neighbourhoods hearall about it.

O'Neill said it's not "ear splitting" noise from his house, but it's become fairly constant.

"Sometimes it just almost seems like for hours," said O'Neill. "It's continuous, non-stop. Then you may not hear it for an afternoon, but it is, you know, 3o'clock in the morning, 3o'clock in the afternoon."

Safety upgrades planned

According to the City of Saint John, since the two crossings currently have no gates, current rail regulatory safety requirements require a train to blow its whistle four times as it approaches, for a total of 20 seconds.

Butsome relief from thatwhistle noise may be on its way.

The City of Saint John announced Tuesday thetwo railroad crossings will have new safety infrastructure installed in the coming months, including warning lights, gates and signage.

Once installed,the city willapply to Transport Canada for a whistle cessation, which was approved for two other crossings in the city's east end in 2015, at Rothesayand Thorne avenues.

If approved for the west end crossings, the trains will only whistle in anemergency.

'A decent night's sleep'

Dorothy Shephard, MLA for Saint John Lancasterand provincial minister of social development, told Information Morning Saint John she's been hearing from residents every week since last fall about the increasingly frequent noise from trains.

"Our economy doesn't support just Saint John, it also supports the entire province but they'd like to have a decent night's sleep," said Shephard.

"The fact that the whistles blow 24/7 is really what they were asking me to respond to. They didn't even ask for a total elimination. They asked if we could have them quiet overnight."

Shephard said it's the proximity of the crossings to each other that's createda special situation, butshe also said it could be months before residents hear a change.

"The parts have all been ordered and we'll hope that we can make this happen as quickly as possible," she said.

"The mayor [of Saint John] will be writing a letter to the province to ask for the whistle cessation and so DTI[Department of Transportation and Infrastructure] has to be involved in this, as does Transport Canada," said Shephard.

The City of Saint John says the new safety infrastructure costs about $900,000, and will be split between the province, the city and New Brunswick Southern Railway.

The city will also provide annual contributions of $5,000toward maintenance of the new infrastructure.

As for O'Neill, news of the noise issue in his neighbourhood being addressed is welcome.But he said he hopes the parties will continue to think proactively about the safety of nearby residents as train activity increases.

"The noise, like I say it's important and it looks like we've got a good start on handling that situation," he said.

"Now I guess it's the knowledge that railroads are doing everything they can to make sure that they have a safe operation."