Neighbours worry about train safety in Richmond Hill

Yorkregion.com
March 15, 2017
By Kim Zarzour

Robin Hesse was lying in bed at 7 a.m. Sunday when she heard the sound of a train passing by.

“It just kept running and running, right outside my home, sitting there with the engine on.”

The Richmond Hill resident is used to rail traffic. Her home on Cedarhurst Drive is directly across from the CN tracks.

But on this particular morning, March 5, something was wrong.

When she came home from work at 7 p.m., the engine was still idling.

“The thing had been rumbling away all day, my windows rattling. I kept thinking about all those fumes going into the air,” she recalled.

Hesse called police who she says told her they’d received many concerned calls, but CN had assured that the rail car was manned and could not be turned off due to the cold weather.

By 9:30 p.m., “the engine was labouring; it didn’t sound like it was doing too well ... The lights were on, but no one was there.”

Finally, around midnight, CN workers arrived by a rail truck, boarded the train and within minutes, the engine chugged down the track.

Later, Hesse learned about the derailment in Pefferlaw on the same day and that news just added to her consternation.

A train engine left running in a residential neighbourhood just doesn’t feel safe, she said, - especially in light of the Pefferlaw incident, another derailment involving a CN freight train in Etobicoke March 9 and an incident two years ago, less than half a mile away from her Richmond Hill neighbourhood north of Elgin Mills Road East.

“We are terrified another derailment is going to happen and it’s going to spill toxic stuff or hurt people. It was frightening, this big train, sitting there all by itself.”

Residents were in no danger, according to Patrick Waldon, CN spokesperson.

Waldon said the Pefferlaw derailment, further north in York Region on the same rail, put the corridor out of service. When that happens, rail cars are staged at various places along the route, he says.

While not speaking to the Richmond Hill situation specifically, he said “generally speaking, we have rules, policies and procedures for securing a train when parked in an appropriate place."

It’s not unusual, in cold temperatures, to leave an engine running, he said.

Ward 2 Coun. Tom Muench said he is regular contact with CN, as rail traffic through Richmond Hill increases. It is a challenge for everyone, he said. Trains are growing longer while population is growing denser.

Drivers have also complained about the level crossing at Elgin Mills. And in December, a disabled rail car held up traffic for four hours during rush hour.

The tracks are part of a major throughway for CN/CP across Canada, Muench said, adding communities need to co-exist while keeping vigilant on rail safety.

“We make a mistake when we build homes too close to the rails ... But they were here before we were. Homes have encroached on rail yards, the rail yards didn’t encroach on homes. They’re not going away.”