4 March 2008
Transcona Residents Face Huge Train Delays
Winnipeg Manitoba - Tired of waiting at railway crossings?
Well just imagine what life will be like for Transcona residents when trains start parking in their neighbourhood.
A last-minute appeal from the Manitoba Floodway Authority prompted a group of Winnipeg city councillors to allow Canadian
Pacific Railroad to use a residential area to park its trains while a new railroad bridge is built over the expanded floodway.
The proposal will allow the CPR to block traffic on three streets in east Winnipeg - Panet Road, Plessis Road, and Peguis Street - for
up to an hour at a time, possibly several times a day, during a 11-month period beginning in September, as its east and
west-bound trains shuffle past each other.
The plan was approved on a desperate appeal from Ernie Gilroy, the chief executive officer of the Manitoba Floodway Authority, who said
the railroad would need a large staging area on the east side of the city while its twin-track railroad bridge over the
floodway is replaced with a new structure.
Gilroy said CPR had agreed to let the province build a new bridge but only if the schedules for its trains were not delayed. Gilroy
told the councillors that all other options had been examined and rejected, adding the proposal had to be approved Tuesday to ensure
that construction of the new bridge can begin in September.
The councillors on the infrastructure renewal and public works committee wrestled with the proposal, upset that it came to them at the
last-minute and that the plan jeopardized public safety and would play havoc with rush-hour traffic in those
areas.
The proposal upset area councillor Russ Wyatt, who said CPR was benefiting from the construction of a new bridge that would ensure its
trains would be safe from flooding but that the railroad isn't willing to be inconvenienced in any way by the project.
Wyatt said traffic delays caused by trains blocking the three streets would compromise the ability of fire trucks and paramedics to
respond to emergencies.
Coun. Lillian Thomas, a member of the committee, said studies showed that rush-hour traffic on Panet Road will be backed
up to Nairn Avenue and to Concordia Avenue by the idling trains.
A compromise plan, to speed up response times of fire trucks and paramedics, will see the city explore the possibility of opening
Ravelston Avenue onto Lagimodiere Boulevard, giving the emergency vehicles an alternate route if Peguis Street is blocked by a train.
But city officials admitted opening Ravelston could also pose a serious traffic concern, adding it's not an opening they would approve
under any other circumstance.
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