JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
A noisy issue that has kept many residents up at night is being put to bed. Starting tomorrow, trains travelling through St. Lazare will no longer be required to blow their whistles at two level crossings adjacent to suburban neighbourhoods.
The move is a result of an agreement reached between the town and Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway company (CPKC) announced last week. Train operators will no longer be required to blow their whistles upon approaching the crossings at Legault Road and Duhamel Street, which are both located near Cité des Jeunes Boulevard in the southwest corner of town. Trains do not whistle at the level crossing at St. Louis Road, CPKC confirmed. There are only three level crossings in St. Lazare.
“It’s a good thing for everyone,” said St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance as she welcomed the news last week, acknowledging that the issue of the train whistle has been “something that we get asked continuously” about over the years.
“It’s disturbing people in their sleep, it’s disturbing their daily life, it’s been the train waking them up whistling at 3 a.m.”
“For them, it’s just to improve their (quality of) life,” she said, referring to residents living in the area.
The silencing of the train whistles comes as the municipality looks to develop the surrounding Cité des Jeunes sector into a residential neighbourhood with roughly 1,200 new dwellings.
The city has been working on this plan since 2015, which involved conducting multiple studies on safety and feasibility, as well as working with CPKC and Transport Canada. The federal department has a detailed procedure for municipalities looking to stop trains from whistling at crossings within their territories.
While some local residents will be relieved, others worry that the lack of train whistles could lead to an increased chance of a collision on the tracks. To this, Lachance emphasized that the train whistle would be used, should the operator spot cars or other activity on or approaching the tracks ahead.
Fencing has been installed along the tracks, stretching 2.2 kilometres between the Legault Road and Duhamel Street crossings and beyond. This $600,000 project, announced in 2024, was required by the federal government before the whistles could be stopped. Approximately 80 per cent of the cost of the fence was covered by Transport Canada. The fencing is meant to prevent wildlife or unsuspecting pedestrians from wandering onto the tracks.
“With the number of people asking us to have the train whistle stop, I think it was well worth the efforts,” Lachance said, adding, the initiative has been “many, many years in the works.”
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