I didn’t know roosters sounded like train whistles. But every weekday morning, round about the crack of dawn, I’m awakened by the familiar, and strangely reassuring, call of the locomotive as it rolls into town for another day of commuting.

Some people in the city are a bit miffed at the wail of the whistle, but what should give taxpayers a headache is the city’s decision to spend $10,000 to study whether or not the south end should be a whistle-free zone.

Well, whistle me up a cup of coffee because this is music to the ears of a columnist. Manna from heaven, you might say.

For those not up to speed, the study is the brainchild of councillors Andrew Prince and Alex Nuttall (wards 9 and 10). It snuck into this year’s $120-million operating budget at the last minute, having previously been derailed by city staff.

A couple of questions come quickly to mind. One, why do we need the study? Two, if we do need the study, why can’t it be done by existing staff?

Now, $10,000 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but every cent of taxpayers’ money should be spent carefully. What, exactly, do the councillors hope to accomplish with this study?

It’s not the first time the wail of the whistle has drawn the ire of those living in close proximity to the tracks. Complaints are so common Transport Canada has a procedure laid out for silencing the whistle.

While they may be annoying, train whistles serve a basic safety function. They alert people that a train is approaching a public railway crossing. The whys of the whistle are set out in the Canadian Rail Operating Rules, and state that trains must whistle as they pass through street-level crossings.

There’s also a process, spelled out in the Railway Safety Act of 2001, for silencing the whistle.

Transport Canada’s Procedures and Conditions for Eliminating Whistling at Public Crossings details the steps a municipality needs to take to eliminate the whistle.

Generally, specific safety measures would need to be in place to replace the whistle. Specifically, according to information from Transport Canada’s website, measures would include:
• The municipality would be required to contact the operator of the train, in our case GO Transit.
• There would be a requirement to notify the public and “all relevant organizations” of the municipality’s desire to implement a no-whistle zone.
• A safety assessment with the railway company would need to be conducted.
• Council would need to pass a motion silencing the whistle.

It’s fair to suggest the city would be on the hook for the safety assessment, and any subsequent upgrades at crossings required to replace the safety factor of the whistle. Also, these measures would need to win the approval of Transport Canada.

All of this information is readily available at the Railway Safety section of Transport Canada’s website. If an editor doing some basic research for a column can ‘stumble’ across this information, just imagine what city staff could do.

A study is unnecessary. Turn the job over to staff and ask for a report.