Canadian Standoff?
Mayor Don Iveson said he receives complaints from drivers facing long waits at southeast crossings, particularly on 50th Street near the Sherwood Park Freeway.
“For a long time, the railways have been closer to God than anything else in Canada. The federal government has given them wide latitude,” he said.
The phrase, good neighbors (or neighbours) does not seem to appear in their (CP or CN) vocabulary, but short-sighted does along with arrogance. [edited for clarity]
Enuf said about City Hall.
I think the city should just start earlier, say around 6, that way rush hour would be two hours ahead of the trains.
Just pass a law that says all people who work in Edmonton have to be at work no later than 6:30
Lots of benefits to this plan…the restaurants won’t be jammed up at noon, because everyone will have to eat lunch at 10:30, and everyone in Edmonton will be home by 3:30, plenty of time to watch Sponge Bob.
Crime will decrease also, because everyone will have to be in bed by 9:30, 10 o’clock at the latest.
You know something? I approve of CN’s and CP’s position. Their shippers and receivers serve many more people across Canada than the total population of Edmonton, let alone the specific commuters who insist on driving to and from work despite the fact that Edmonton has a very decent public transportation system. Changing the schedules might have bad impacts on their operations all across Canada, not just locally. Proabably the railroad was there before the highway crossing. To me, the drivers are the ones that are arrogant. Unless really proven otherwise.
It would be nice to know how “long” long is. Is it 20 minutes, 30 minutes, two hours? Anything below 20 minutes probably requires nothing more than patience and better planning on the part of commuters, i.e. if you know that your morning commute involves an occasional train then plan accordingly and set out 20 minutes earlier than you ordinarily would. Nevertheless large corporations would do well to adopt a less arrogant stance. Commuters are voters and consumers too, and railways, phone companies and others need to understand that they do not operate in a vacuum, they in fact exist to serve the people who live in the communities in which they operate.
Sure. It’s like all the people who move out to the country, then want the farmers to stop doing all that noisy, dirty farm work. Oh, those arrogant and short-sighted farmers. They should have known 100 years ago, that people would move in around them, and demand that they change to make the new residents happy.
I’d bet real money that there were trains running through Edmonton long before there were cars in Edmonton. Why not simply move the city somewhere away from the tracks? That seems about as reasonable as what the residents are asking for?
Based on the comments following the article, Edmontonians are burning bridges when they should be building them. [swg]
I know nothing about Edmonton, but it seems like it would be reasonable to build a few highway overpasses. Of course, it’s cheaper to demand that the railways change their long-established practices in order to adapt to Edmonton’s highway traffic.
One solution is for the city of Edmonton to build over passes so the cars can pass over the tracks. That would solve the problem. These drivers sound NIMBIES down here in the lower 48.
Taken as a whole, the communication coming out of most large companies these days (websites, press releases, etc.) can be summed up as follows: “We CARE about the environment, our people are our most important asset, but FU”.
Just to be clear, I don’t condone the cavalier attitude that was evidently taken by CN and CP. They need to communicate with the public and show that they would like to work towards a solution. After all, there is still a place for courtesy, even in business and politics. But their message should include suggestions for a solution — such as overpasses — and they should not be the only parties who are expected to provide that solution.
Exactly. More friendly communication along the lines of “we recognize the problem and we’re working with local officials to find a solution that works for all of us” would have been more appropriate (and professional). Their FU attitude strongly suggests they need more competition and regulations.
…On second thought, it probably won’t work. It sounds too much like common sense.
One word: cooperation.
The city of Edmonton is at fault in this case, ever heard of an overpass or underpass? this problem has existed for years and nothing was done about it, not for lack of money, the richest Province has been dumping money around like drunken sailors for years, even Moose Jaw has many conveyances over and under the railway, some newer ones too,
Keep in mind, that the article is filtered through the viewpoint of the city leaders and the disgruntled drivers.
I found the yard at 50th St on Mapquest.
Opportunities abound.
50th street is a 4 lane divided main arterial street with the grade cossing immediately next to the start of the switching ladder on the S/W end of the CP yard. There is also an intersection with another road immediately adjacent to the crossing (the signals are probably all connected. Becasue of the Sherwood Parkway there is no other major N-S highway for about a mile in either direction. 1/2 mile north of the crossing is a major junction with a large E-W arterial feeder. The yard is a 16 track yard that looks like its for inductry support. (very few other railroad facilities there, no obvious servicing facilities, only a yard office and a couple tie up tracks). On the other end of the yard is a lead that goes out about 3/4 to 1 yard track length with no crossings.
Building an over pass would be feasible (all it takes is time and money).
If trains switching are the problem there has to be a rest of the story as to why they aren’t switching off the N/E end of the yard.
Guessing is that the problem is trains setting out or picking up/doubling out of the yard on the S/E end.
Modifying the train operations to run at the times they are now and minimizing traffic would take some significant creativity, but there might be possibilities (double the train out on the rear on the N/E end, then run to the SW end and put the engines on, get the air test and then depart so traffic impacted is just the straight away move out of the yard. Don’t have a clue what other implications that has for through traffic or how that would block other jobs working at the yard.
I grew up in Edmonton and regularly visit the city, so here are my thoughts on this debate.
The city is primarily to blame for the problems. They have elected to put off building over/underpasses for many years in the name of saving money. The Journal is also not known for its knowledge of railroads, note how the section about moving CN’s yards goes straight to the CP crossing on 50th St.
Lambton Park yard, next to 50th St, was built in the early 1960s by CP to move switching away from the yards in Old Strathcona (still used) and Downtown (109th St & Jasper Ave, abandoned 1989). The city has since grown up around it in classic NIMBY fashion. CP is also moving their intermodal yard from Calgary Trail & Whitemud Drive (where switching moves regularly block on/off ramps onto the Whitemud Freeway) to the outskirts south of Ellerslie Road, but gets no credit for it.
As for CN, my employer once worked with the city to plan ahead for the expansion of Walker (then Calder) yard back in the 1960s/70s, leading to the long underpasses at 82nd, 97th, 127th Streets and St. Albert trail. Our intermodal yard was also moved from the east side of 97th St to the West end 10 or 15 years ago, moving all the trucks out there. More recently the city built an interchange and overpass at Yellowhead Trail and 156 St as well. But after that they passed up doing 149 St and Yellowhead, CN’s 4-track mainline and connection between Walker and Bissel yards which sees approx. 100 trains/yard moves a day, and instead built an underpass at 137th Ave and 142nd St, on a branchline that sees 6-8 trains/yard moves a day at most. 149th is regularly blocked for 20-30 minutes as trains wait to enter the yard or do large pickups and setoffs at Bissel. And again this year the city passed up converting Yellowhead into a true freeway because of the cost, prolonging the issues at the crossing. See
Why? Shiny engines don’t allow the railroad to haul more freight than dirty ones and happy town residents dont allow them to haul any less than angry town residents.