Regina Saskatchewan - While Regina's mayor welcomes recommendations made in the wake of the Lake Megantic train disaster, he says it's unlikely that rail lines will be rerouted around the Saskatchewan capital anytime soon.
 
Mayor Michael Fougere says moving rail tracks and yards outside the city would come at a tremendous cost.
 
"In a perfect world, if we were designing Regina, you might want to have the rail lines outside the city. But that's a billion-dollar-plus proposition to do that, and I'm not sure any government is prepared to put money on the table to do that," Fougere said Tuesday.
 
"So, what we have to do today and tomorrow is deal with what we have now, which is rail lines through the heart of our city, to make sure it's as safe as possible."
 
As Regina grows at a rapid pace, the long trains running through the city have been causing traffic snarls at busy crossings like the one on the Ring Road near Winnipeg Street.
 
Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Kay says, at times, emergency vehicles have to wait for a train to pass before responding to a call for service.
 
"Rerouting the rail lines would improve response times, we wouldn't have as many level crossings to get across," Kay said.
 
"It is something that is nice to have, but I'm not certain it's going to happen anytime soon."
 
Fougere said the city could look at putting railway overpasses at busy crossings, but the provincial and federal governments would have to commit funding toward those multimillion-dollar projects.
 
Kay said Regina is well prepared to respond to a train disaster if one occurred in the city.
 
"We'll carefully look at the recommendations from Transport Canada regarding Lake Megantic," he said.
 
"We've got our emergency response action plans in place to deal with any incident that occurs in the city."

Ken Gousseau.

Editor's Note:  Article abridged - repetitive data about Lake Megantic removed.