18 May 2008
Drivers Rail as Trains Block Roads
Calgary Alberta - Never mind the fabled Last Spike - for
Calgary motorists, it's the last straw when it comes to trains crossing major roadways at the most annoying possible time.
The latest outrage occurred at the height of rush hour on Wednesday morning, when a freight train trundled across Glenmore Tr. near
Ogden Rd., blocking commuters behind a barricade of slow-moving railway cars.
Just as the caboose-end of that train finally appeared some 15 minutes later, the crossing arms malfunctioned, and no one
could clear the intersection.
Then, just as the arms finally lifted, a second train travelling in the opposite direction forced them right back down again.
It's enough to make Thomas the Tank Engine swear like a drunken brakeman.
Traffic was backed up as far away as Blackfoot Tr., and one female driver, who called into a local radio station to vent her
frustration, said she waited 35 minutes before traffic started moving again.
Of course, Calgary's train companies, CP and CN, will tell you Calgary's railways are a vital part of the city's economic
infrastructure, and stopping rail traffic during rush-hour would cut the ignition on the engine of industry.
And maybe so - except 99% of the people caught in traffic as the train crawls by are part of the economy too, and a traffic jam costs
Calgary in lost time, lost manpower, and stalled production.
Trains aren't the only carriers of materials and products in this town, and a train blocking a major artery means tractor trailers and
other delivery trucks can't move either.
Indeed, Ald. Joe Ceci says many of the irate calls to his city hall office have been from business owners demanding to know what the
city plans to do about the ill-timed trains, which are costing them customers and contracts.
"People are really less than happy about this," said Ceci.
Ceci has already put a notice of motion before city council, asking for a study on the cost of adding overpasses and underpasses to
major rail/road intersections in southeast Calgary.
The motion follows a multitude of complaints to the city as of late.
It seems at least once a week there's a major traffic clog caused by a train, followed by a ripple effect which slows commuters for
kilometres around.
It's not only rush hour when railway planners prove how oblivious they are to the needs of Calgarians - during one Flames playoff game,
trains blocked Saddledome traffic before the match, and again after.
The answer, of course, will be millions of dollars shouldered by city taxpayers to build overpasses - not a penny will be paid by the
train companies that are causing the problem.
That's because in Canada, railways are above the local law.
Be it weed-ridden tracks, piles of creosote-soaked scrap wood on railway land, or rusting boxcars causing an
eyesore, there's almost nothing the City of Calgary can do to legislate the rails.
It goes back to the days of steam and the national dream, when the railway was seen as a tie to bind the country - where rail went,
civilization would follow.
Calgary itself was a backwater barrack town of tents and mounted police before the CPR whistled its way through late in the 19th
century.
The railway's decision to erect a station at the current site of the Calgary Tower is why our downtown is located there now.
Calgary's founding fathers had actually chosen modern-day Inglewood as the town centre, when rail officials forced the
fledgling settlement to move.
That Calgary's aldermen are still working at the whim of the rail is as archaic as it is frustrating.
According to Transport Canada, a stopped train is allowed to block vehicle traffic for five minutes, while a moving train can take as
long as necessary to cross a road.
There are no plans to mandate more sensible hours for train traffic, and it's up to cities to change infrastructure if train crossings
are a problem.
The only other answer, says Transport Canada, is for the city to appeal to the federal government for change.
With trains nowhere to be found on the federal agenda, it seems Calgarians have but two choices: Pay millions for upgrades, or
sit in traffic and steam.
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