A train crosses Adelaide Street - Derek Ruttan.

23 November 2011

City Targets Adelaide Rail Misery

London Ontario - Hale-Trafalgar?
 
Done.
 
Next up, Adelaide and Oxford.
 
In a city where frequent tie-ups at level railway crossings leave drivers fuming, London is targeting Adelaide St. N., just south of Oxford St., for its next railway overpass to ease the massive traffic delays and backlogs caused by trains.
 
The city's transportation department will ask for money in the next budget cycle, likely in February, for a study, it could cost $200,000 alone, looking at putting an overpass at that location.
 
But before you start celebrating and counting on leaving later to get where you're going, be warned:  It would be many years before a shovel is in the ground. It was same with the $16-million Hale-Trafalgar overpass, a raised traffic roundabout with a rail tunnel beneath.
 
"This will be years away" if it wins approval and funding, said John Lucas, the city's transportation manager.
 
But an east-end politician, who's had an Adelaide overpass at the top of his political to-do list, said he will push for the next study.
 
"It is our No. 1 priority now and we (council) told staff to find the money and start negotiations," said Coun. Stephen Orser, in whose Ward 4 the intersection is located.
 
"When people find out there may be an overpass coming, they will yell Hallelujah!" he said. "It should have been done 25 years ago. It causes a major clog of traffic. It is frustrating for a lot of people."
 
A 2005 study on the city's rail industry put Hale-Trafalgar at the top of the priority list for level crossings on the Canadian National line in London.
 
But Canadian Pacific's Adelaide-Oxford crossing was also up there, atop the list for the CP line, and now its time has come, Lucas said.
 
"We looked at all the major crossings, we looked at potential conflicts, we went into great depth to review this and how emergency and safety services might be impacted and might be improved," he said.
 
Daily, the 2005 report said, 20 trains and 26,000 vehicles cross that intersection, located about half a kilometre south of Oxford St.
 
When trains block traffic, the average delay is about five minutes, but the longest recorded was about 20 minutes.
 
"The characteristics and duration of delays suggests that Adelaide is the most important location to consider a grade separation due to delays along the CP corridor," the report found.
 
With a CP rail yard near the Adelaide crossing, drivers can suffer even longer delays there as trains shunt backward and forward from the yard, Orser added.
 
"It shuts the city down daily," he said.
 
"I will push this aggressively, it is time. It is a priority over other things at city hall. I would rather have an overpass here than a new city hall," said Orser.
 
While an overpass would be more for the city's benefit than CP's, the company is open to one at that location and will discuss it with the city, said Kevin Hrysak, a CP spokesperson.
 
"There are a whole range of things we will have to go through. But if the city approached us formally, we are open to discussing it. We will work with them on that," he said.
 
Overpasses reduce the chances of a vehicle or pedestrian-train "incident," he added.