Saskatoon Saskatchewan - There has been progress, but a federal or provincial partner needs to be found before the Rail Working Group can start to make changes to limit the impact of rail operations within Saskatoon or any other city.
 
Several solutions have already been talked about in Saskatoon including moving the tracks outside city limits and/or running the road under the tracks.
 
Mayor Don Atchison shared an idea earlier this year about CN and CP sharing their lines as they do with their operations in the Fraser Valley in BC.
 
Head of the working group Dan Paulsen says those projects worked in BC because they were jointly funded.
 
He adds in the interim both his group and the city have been testing technology that shows when a train passes through a crossing by tracking when the lights and arms are activated and de-activated.
 
The working group has had some success with a system at the 25th Street crossing, while the city is working on telemetry for its system at 11th Street near Montgomery so it doesn't have to attend the scene to download the information every few days.
 
All of this comes after the city's emergency services staff experienced major delays in responding to calls over the past several years.
 
Currently, delays from trains in the city come as long as 50 to 55 minutes at times.
 
Paulsen says they are still consulting Transport Canada (TC) about better enforcement of delay regulations.
 
He adds both CN and CP have been very cooperative in talks for the most part.
 
However, Councillor Pat Lorje says from her talks with CN their local authorities don't seem too cooperative.
 
Lorje mentioned that the local CN yardmaster keeps sending too many cars to Viterra over the lines at 11th Street and Circle Drive.
 
She estimated it could only hold about 30 when the yardmaster will send 100 or more.
 
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