Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian is inviting community members to a townhall meeting on train noise this week.
The townhall will take place on Thursday, Oct. 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Inn at the Quay 900 Quayside Dr. New Westminster MLA Judy Darcy, Mayor Wayne Wright, Coun. Chuck Puchmayr and Brian Allen, a member of the Quayside Community Board, are the event’s special guests.
Julian has attempted to address the issue of nighttime train noise in Ottawa and has worked with the Quayside Community Board on the issue in the past. The City of New Westminster has established a community advisory panel that it plans to use to address various issues with the four railways that pass through the city.
The townhall meeting comes three weeks after the Quayside Community Board raised concerns about “a serious misuse” of rail safety equipment, in regards to a train whistle that sounded at 4:50 a.m. on Sept. 12. A letter to the railways states that a locomotive conductor laid on the horn full-on for 60 seconds or more while traveling the length of the rail yard at less than five miles per hour.
“This event woke hundreds of people from their sleep,” stated the letter. “Numerous eyewitnesses, thinking the worst, went and rushed out onto their balconies and could see from the lights of the locomotive that there was no visible obstruction, hazard or person near the tracks. We assume the locomotive engineer was doing this purposely.”
An uptown resident told The Record he was awoken by the whistle, which was so loud he thought the train was coming through his home.
“Many residents were extremely frightened and concerned in light of recent events at Lac-Megantic, and some felt some sort of railway emergency was in progress,” stated the letter. “When attempting to call the complaint line, there was only an automated answering service to leave a message on. Numerous people did leave complaints on the answering service and emails have been received documenting eyewitness accounts within minutes and hours of this event. The most important message here is that people were extremely anxious that a pending emergency was or had taken place so close to home and the resulting confusion of what to do in case there was a pending catastrophe outside their door.”
The Quayside Community Board has conveyed its concerns to the railways and the city, and asked that this “very serious event” be investigated by rail company management.
Many residents have expressed concern about train noise in the Quayside rail yard during the night.
