City council hit the brakes on all work to require trains to stop blowing their whistles in the city limits after the estimated cost jumped significantly.
What was originally described in the 2012 budget as a $450,000 expense has since increased to $850,000, according to an agenda report before council on Monday night. That cost covers the expenses of upgrading train crossings within the city limits and erecting fencing along the tracks on both sides of its right of way.
“I’m changing my mind on this,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse, who put the stop-work motion forward. “The money is not there. That’s how I’m feeling.”
Council approved Crouse’s motion 4-3 with Couns. Wes Brodhead, Roger Lemieux and Cam MacKay voting against.
Residents, particularly those who live close to the tracks, have complained for years that train whistles disturb their sleep and quality of life. In 2008 the city commissioned a study to examine the issue and to see what kinds of upgrades would be required in order to make the city a whistle-free zone.
In the fall of 2011, council approved the required work at a cost of $400,000, spreading the work out over 2012 and 2013.
Brodhead, who has championed train whistle cessation, said the city should still proceed with the work for which it already budgeted.
“This motion (Monday), it will be at least a year longer for their suffering to come to an end,” said Brodhead. “For those for whom sleep is difficult it truly is suffering.”
Administration originally came before council asking for approval to spend $56,000 on upgrades to two crossings. Necessary upgrades potentially include crossing arms, lights and bells to alert drivers that a train is near.
Only with those kinds of upgrades and with the fencing installed will CN be willing to tell its conductors to stop blowing its whistle. Its conductors would still maintain the right to sound whistles in case of emergency.
Director of engineering Tracy Allen said the work on the two crossings would have cost almost $400,000 but the city qualified for a grant that will cover 87.5 per cent of the cost.
She said there are other grants available from Transport Canada but a decision could take as long as three years. She said the reason for the increase was that one crossing either wasn’t accounted for in the original estimate or it had been assumed it would qualify for grant funding.
Brodhead asked his colleagues not to approve Crouse’s measure, saying the train whistle was more of a “90-decibel scream” that degraded residents’ quality of life. If the city grows rapidly, future councils will have to deal with the issue of noise from trains, he said.
“There are going to be trains going through so sooner or later we are going to have to deal with trains making a lot of noise in our community,” Brodhead said.
But Crouse said he wanted the city to first find the money before it accomplished any more work.
“You didn’t tell your colleagues where you’re going to get an extra $400,000,” Crouse said to Brodhead. “At this point I’m starting to feel less supportive of the project because we are now at $850,000.”
The decision on how to fund that work in the future will now go to the 2014 budget process which will start shortly after the October municipal election.
