Residents who can’t stand the early morning blast of the GO Train whistle will have to find their own way to muffle the sound.
Citing safety and liability issues, Council decided Wednesday it won’t attempt to silence the whistles, which sound as early as 5:30 a.m. on weekdays.
While residents have welcomed the return of the commuter service to Toronto, several in Innisfil and Barrie have complained about being disturbed by the trains’ loud warning horns.
“The train itself is not loud, but the horn is ridiculously loud,” Forest Street resident Denise Rempel wrote in a letter to council. “It makes me sad that we moved here from the busy overpopulated city of Brampton and instead of enjoying peace and quiet in this beautiful town we are really being disturbed by this train horn.”
Rempel said she would have no difficulty collecting a petition full of names from several neighbours who feel the same way.
Stroud resident Kindy Dane told council in a letter the whistles wake her family at about 5:45 a.m. every weekday morning as the GO train approaches the Victoria Street crossing.
“Never did we think that the train would be blowing its horn four times per train. And the trains go by every half hour.”
But Mayor Brian Jackson, who lives near the tracks in St. Paul’s, said council can’t risk the safety of residents by passing a bylaw that would silence the whistles.
“Those train tracks were there long before the people were. It’s like moving near an airport and asking for the planes not to take off,” Jackson said. “If something happens, this becomes the liability of the town. We’re being very prudent even though it might be irritating for some.”
Meanwhile, Barrie councillors have approved a $10,000 study to investigate the feasibility of a no-whistle zone in south-east Barrie near the new GO station.
Innisfil staff, including police and fire officials, recommended against passing an anti-whistling bylaw.
While GO rail crossings have barriers, flashing red lights and bells, a town report says sometimes that isn’t enough to alert drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
About 124 collisions between trains and vehicles in 2006 occurred at such crossings. “The (whistle) noise of an approaching train alerts oncoming traffic of an impending crossing,” the staff report states.
After attending several train crossing collisions where drivers appeared to have ignored signals, it makes sense to have every warning device possible, South Simcoe Police and Innisfil fire officials state.
Still, several municipalities have no whistle zones including Bolton, where signs are posted stating: “Trains do not blow whistles at this crossing.”
Last December, New Tecumseth council was asked to reconsider a no-whistle zone by one of its Alliston residents.
But the township’s council decided to stick with its 2004 decision.
“One week after I came to Tottenham in 1950, six people were killed on the 9th Line because they didn’t hear the train,” New Tecumseth Coun. Jim Stone said.
at the December meeting.
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