He was at city hall to talk to council about rail safety in the wake of the Lac-Megantic disaster in Quebec, but CP Rail’s director of government affairs had some critical words for the city about its behaviour around train crossings.
Mike Lovecchio said cars parking on the tracks became a big problem on the weekend as traffic headed to the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier at Interior Savings Centre backed up on Third Avenue.
“A train does not stop on a dime,” he told council on Tuesday, March 4.
“There is no steering wheel in the cab and, if someone finds themselves on the tracks when a train is present, it’s going to work out poorly for that person.”
Lovecchio thanked the city for posting a bylaw officer at the Third Avenue crossing after the rail company asked, but noted keeping people off the tracks should have been part of the plan all along.
“I’d suggest to you that somewhere in the traffic plan there was an oversight,” he said, adding the city is normally good about keeping traffic moving at the crossing during Kamloops Blazers’ games.
Lovecchio said CP staff have reported parents stopped with their children on the tracks, which he called a “horrible risk.”
He said he hopes the city will keep a bylaw officer posted on Third Avenue until the end of the Brier.
In the long term, Lovecchio said, he would like to see level crossings in the city eliminated as much as possible.
He said a planned reconfiguration of First Avenue that will allow drivers to access Lorne Street via the underpass is a good start, but CP also wants to see work done at the Second and Third avenue intersections with the railroad.
Lovecchio said adding grade separation at those intersections “is not an insignificant cost,” but pledged that CP would make a case to the federal and provincial governments on the city’s behalf if it wants to secure funding for upgrades.
City staff told KTW changing the crossings would likely cost millions of dollars, while grade separation at Second and Third avenues isn’t on the city’s radar right now.
Lovecchio said issues at level crossings are common throughout the province.
In Valleyview, the company has similar issues with cars that attempt to run the crossing when trains are approaching, though it is starting to deal with the issue by mounting video cameras on the front of its locomotives.
He urged the city to do more to promote rail safety to residents.
“They should always respect the train,” he said.
Coun. Tina Lange asked if CP would consider funding such a campaign, but Lovecchio said the railway already supports a safety program in schools and holds media and public events in the city each year during Rail Safety Week.
“I’m reluctant to say to you — when I look at our track record already, look at what we are doing — I’m reluctant to say we’ll fund a city program when, in my view, this is something the city should be doing in any case,” he said.
Lovecchio did offer to run either a table-top or mock-disaster exercise with the city’s first responders, noting Kamloops Fire Rescue and CP are in the process of setting up an agreement that will allow the fire service to monitor what dangerous goods are travelling in and out of the city by rail most often.
