womn  GCOUNC

OCT 239 1979

Mayor and Council , October 26th, 1979

L.D. Pollock
City Administrator

Re: Train Whistles and Noise

Council will recall that in June of this year, a Petition was
presented to Council by local residents complaining about:

1. excessive sounding of train whistles at railway crossings

2. noise during switching operations in the Port Coquitlam
Railway Yards, and

3. continually long traffic delays at various level crossings.

.The Petition was conveyed to the Railway Transport Committee for their
investigation and I have had meetings with their representative with a

view to getting a4 response on all of these problems. The Transport Committee
did place staff on this problem during the summer months in order to gather
information on noise at the Yards and delays at the railway corssings. I
have followed this matter up with the Committee but to date they have not
completed their investigation. Rather than hold up the whole matter, I
thought that Council might wish to give consideration to the other aspect

of the problem which is the train whistles and noise at level crossings.

The Transport Committee forwarded to the City information outlining
the procedure required for the passage of a By-law to prohibit the sounding
of whistles or the ringing of bells by trains in urban areas. The Railway
Act provides that the municipality may make application and pass a By-law
that would relieve the Railway of the duty to sound a whistle at aJl crossings
within the municipality. The procedure to be followed bythe municipality is
attached and you will note that the application is subject to inspection and
approval by the Committee and that all public crossings located within the
boundaries of the City should be included in the proposed By-law. In addition,
I understand that they will not consider the application unless the crossings
are the protected type, for example, with appropriate barricades or flashing
lights, etc. which warn of approaching trains.

I was concerned about the liability that might be imposed upon the
City if we pass such a By-law as the Railway would then be relieved of their
responsibility and I have therefore obtained the attached opinion from our
Solicitor on this question. In this regard, Mr. Thomas feels that the City
does not have the authority under the Municipal Act to pass such a By-law
and while he has pointed out that the By-law, once approved, would not likely
be challenged by the Railway, the City can only pass By-laws where we have
authority stated under the Municipal Act. Mr. Thomas is therefore pointing
out that the C,T.C. cannot give the City authority to pass a By-law. My.
concern would be that if there was an accident at a level crossing and the
Railway had not sounded a warning whistle because of our By-law, it would
put the City in a bad position if it was later proved that the City had no
authority to pass such a By-law.