Work continues on a $25-million bridge on Hespeler Road over the Canadian Pacific tracks near Cambridge's Delta intersection.

5 October 2011

Cameras to Warn Rescue Crews of Trains Blocking Cambridge Roads

Cambridge Ontario - Cameras are ready to warn rescue crews when long, slow, trains block Hespeler and Concession roads.
 
It's not clear yet, however, if the public will be allowed to view the real-time images on the web. That way, motorists could also avoid bottlenecks that develop up to a dozen times a day as trains cut the city in half at level crossings.
 
"I think it's an excellent idea. I would certainly be supportive of looking at the technology to do this," said Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig.
 
Public access to the train-crossing cameras hasn't been discussed around the Waterloo Region council table, but Craig said he will raise it now that he's been told about it.
 
In July 2010, Benjamin Munch was pulled unconscious from a family pool on Concession Road. Paramedics revived the two-year-old. Cambridge Memorial Hospital was two minutes away, but the ambulance was blocked at least eight minutes by a Canadian Pacific train shunting back and forth across Concession near Coronation Boulevard.
 
The same train also blocked Hespeler Road to the east, and multiple street crossings to the west through old Preston, preventing any detour. Benjamin died in hospital three weeks later.
 
Across the region, ambulances are delayed by trains five or six times a year, Prno said. The Concession Road incident was the first time the delay was longer than a minute, he said.
 
That prompted meetings between local railways and emergency officials looking for ways to minimize delays for ambulances and fire trucks. Railway crossing maps and emergency contact lists have been updated, Prno said.
 
Canadian Pacific is also nearly done a rail yard west of Ayr, near the new Woodstock Toyota factory. It won't, however, remove the need to shunt long trains through Cambridge to the Fountain Street Toyota plant.
 
The train cameras went up at Hespeler and Concession crossings in early summer, but persistent technical bugs prevented them going into use until now, Prno said. The cameras, two at each crossing, cost $30,000 in total. Dedicated high-speed data lines will cost $1,000 a month.
 
Eventually, Prno wants the video available for the public to see, like the Transportation Ministry's Compass cameras along Toronto-area highways.
 
Regional computer gurus aren't convinced that can work, he said. They fear hundreds of people logging on will delay real-time images when emergency dispatchers most need them.
 
Bridges over tracks are the best way to eliminate emergency delays, Prno said. Work started in May on a $25-million bridge on Hespeler Road just north of the Delta intersection. It's on schedule to finish in November 2012.
 
Once the Hespeler bridge is open, the cameras there could be moved somewhere else, Prno said. They might go on the tracks at King Street in Kitchener near Victoria Street, or the tracks through Baden where VIA passenger trains zip through the village past an ambulance station.
 
There's discussion underway about a region-wide traffic-management system using multiple cameras and overhead video signs to warn motorists of traffic problems. Nothing is approved, but there may be federal money to help pay for it, Prno said. The train cameras are the first step, he said.
 
"I'd like to have cameras all along Highway 8, down to Maple Grove Road and the 401. When something happens there, you get blocked in," Prno said.
 
Kevin Swayze.