Canadian Pacific's Alyth Yard - Date unknown Gavin Young.

2 August 2013

Canadian Pacific Ordered to Restrict Night Noise at Alyth Yard Next to Inglewood

Calgary Alberta - Canadian Pacific Railway has been ordered to move its overnight locomotive testing and idling metres from its repair facility and the Inglewood residents who've complained about constant noise.
 
Inglewood neighbours have long decried an increase in load testing at Alyth yard near their homes.
 
The Canadian Transportation Agency, which considered their complaints, has concluded the railway's operations at all hours "result in a high degree of annoyance and sleep disturbance to the complainants," states a decision released this week.
 
It's not just the high-decibel load testing, which Ald. Gian-Carlo Carra described as "full chug... a rock concert scream of noise."
 
The agency also took issue with the steady low-frequency noise and "noise-induced rattles."
 
Under the CTA order that takes effect 15 Aug 2013, the rail company cannot conduct any idling or load testing between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., unless it's done at least 400 metres southeast of its repair facility.
 
The railway already shifted its testing away from the repair building last year, company spokesman Ed Greenberg said.
 
"We feel we comply, but at the same time we want to check to ensure that the distance away from the facility meets the CTA directive," he said Friday.
 
But the repair facility's closest neighbour said she still gets woken up by the full-throttle revving of locomotive tests after midnight.
 
"It's unpredictable, so it can be at any hour," said Jen Bysterveld, who launched the complaint on behalf of herself and 10 neighbours.
 
She's pleased by the ruling, although she wanted tougher limits.
 
"It's a good first step. We'll take it," Bysterveld said.
 
"The onus has always been on us to prove that they're making too much noise, that it's unreasonable. And now we'll have to monitor closely to make sure they take the ruling seriously."
 
The railway has 30 days to appeal the agency's decision, and Greenberg said Canadian Pacific is currently reviewing it.
 
Once the rule is in effect, CTA's enforcement division can follow up based on complaints and by its own volition, spokeswoman Chantal Laflamme said.
 
The move doesn't push the testing fully out of the neighbourhood, but from around 24th Avenue S.E. to 30th, at the south edge of the neighbourhood.
 
That puts it close to the 114-unit Alice Bissett affordable housing complex, and Carra worries the noise issue won't have completely left Inglewood.
 
"They're going to run into the same problems with Alice Bissett Place," said Carra.
 
In their decision, CTA officials noted that 400 metres from the repair building is currently where the railway does testing when the area near its building is congested, and that it's sufficient distance away.
 
Overall, the area alderman applauded the decision, but also noted that CP has "gotten a lot smarter" about its operations since the community complaints began.
 
Alyth yard has long been the site of locomotive testing, but Inglewood residents successfully argued to the CTA that Canadian Pacific has ramped up the cacophonous activity after the railway consolidated repair operations into the southeast Calgary yard.
 
"CP has not filed any evidence to indicate that before implementing its decision to create a major repair facility at the Alyth yard and increase the volume of its repair operations, CP gave any consideration to the impact this would have on the community," the decision says.
 
Jason Markusoff.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada