10 July 2010

Cambridge MP Goodyear Wants Ambulance Delay at Train Crossing

Gary Goodyear.

Cambridge Ontario - Tough rules to ensure emergency access across train tracks "absolutely has to be" part of an overhaul of national railway regulations next year, says federal cabinet minister Gary Goodyear.
 
He's Cambridge's member of Parliament, Minister of Science and Technology, and no fan of Canadian Pacific Railway. He can't believe the company didn't break existing federal rules by taking more than eight minutes to get out of the way of an ambulance in Preston 3 Jul 2010 that was carrying an injured boy.
 
Trains aren't supposed to block tracks for more than five minutes, and are supposed to get out of the way as fast as possible if emergency vehicles need to cross.
 
"Despite CP suggestions that it's adhered to (the rules), there's no one in Cambridge that believes that. I certainly don't," Goodyear said. "Everybody who's gone down Highway 24 has experienced much longer delays than a five-minute time frame."
 
Goodyear said he immediately called for Transport Minister John Baird to investigate Saturday's incident. Because the train was moving back and forth, it wasn't "stopped" and technically didn't break the law, Goodyear said.
 
The ambulance was carrying a two-year-old boy pulled from a backyard pool. It was blocked at the Concession Road crossing. It would have taken three minutes to get to Cambridge Memorial Hospital, but paramedics had no options, the train also blocked Hespeler Road and crossings to the west through old Preston.
 
The boy remained in critical condition Friday in a Hamilton hospital.
 
Railway and ambulance officials plan to meet within the next 30 days to talk about what happened and look for ways to prevent it from repeating.
 
"I'm happy to come to the table with CP, but I've had a history of broken promises with them," Goodyear said.
 
"They're in the doghouse."
 
Goodyear said he has wrangled for years with the railway over plans for a train yard west of Ayr. And he slammed the railway for years of delays to get work started on a bridge to carry Hespeler Road over the tracks at The Delta intersection. That $25-million, two-year project, is expected to start by year's end, paid for mostly by the railway.
 
"There's animosity that builds between citizens living around the tracks and CP, CP could go a long way to be more co-operative," Goodyear said.
 
Canadian Pacific is serious about fixing the emergency access situation in Cambridge, despite Goodyear's criticism, said railway spokesperson Mike LoVecchio.
 
"(Goodyear) is well on the record with his views of the company over the past few years. I would suggest it is unfortunate he's using this past incident to air some older views."
 
LoVecchio said the railway has agreements in place with communities across the continent to deal with emergency vehicles blocked by trains.
 
"We're committed to sitting down with them and them sitting down with us. This is a good move forward."
 
The railway is constantly working to resolve community-railway conflicts, he said.
 
"They can and do happen when communities have grown up around the tracks, such as in the case of Cambridge... our interest is to understand better the community's concerns and to explain our own."
 
Waterloo Region ambulance director John Prno said he's heartened by the railway's eagerness to talk about preventing delays. A dozen citizens have also called his office offering ideas to remedy the problem, including a retired Canadian National Railways engineer.
 
"People aren't just coming in ramming the railways. They're saying, why don't we do this? They want to help find a solution," Prno said.
 
Kevin Swayze.