Over looking the Sudbury Rail yard from the Bridge of Nations - Date unknown Gino Donato.

30 September 2013

Tracks Should be Moved
Away from Urban Areas

Sudbury Ontario - For years, Sudburians have voiced their concern relating to the CPR tracks at the Elm Street crossing.
 
Trains travel through the city approximately every 90 minutes creating havoc and traffic jams.
 
The railway tracks that should be a real concern to the citizens of this community are the CN tracks that extend through the city from east to west.
 
These tracks cross several major arteries in the city, unlike the CPR tracks which cross one main artery, Elm Street.
 
Trains on the CN tracks, which cut through the city several times, day and night, travel over Ethelbert Street, through the Donovan into the Flour Mill crossing Notre Dame Avenue, into New Sudbury, crossing Barrydowne Road, and over the Falconbridge highway.
 
In every area it travels through it enters very dense populated sections, including school yards and playgrounds.
 
On Anderson Avenue, where the train is across the street from our homes, there were two or three short trains a day a few years ago.
 
In the past several years, we have witnessed a vast increase of CN trains travelling through our neighbourhood.
 
The trains pull about 100 cars transporting various types of chemicals and inflammable and caustic materials.
 
These trains ramble through heavily populated areas of the city several times a day.
 
It is obvious that CN has turned this minor railway track into a major line of transport.
 
The high-pitched screeching noise created by the wheels pressing against the metal tracks demonstrate that these tracks were not built for long haul trains.
 
A derailment is a major concern to the people of our neighbourhood.
 
The same tracks traverses the trestle over Beatty Street, a trestle, which is a mass of rusted steel.
 
How often has its construction been inspected?
 
Why is CN allowed to travel through the centre of our city hauling dangerous materials?
 
Are we waiting for another catastrophe as happened in Quebec recently?
 
Let's speak out and demand that our first priority is the safety of the citizens of this city.
 
It is time they were moved out of urban areas and a great distance away from populated areas.
 
Tony Sottile.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada