By Greg Nikkel
Most of Weyburn city council spoke in opposition to closing the Queen Street crossing of the CP Rail line, while a representative of CP Rail reiterated their wish for the city to close the crossing in light of a recent collision at that crossing, and of safety concerns with the crossing.
Mike LoVecchio, director of government affairs for CP Rail, told council that the railway is not in compliance with Transport Canada standards, noted that Transport Canada ranks this crossing as the 65th worst out of 21,115 at-risk crossings in Canada.
Citing a report compiled by KGS Engineering for the City last year, it would cost an estimated $1.3 million to bring the crossing up to compliance, he said.
The city engineer later said by his research the cost would be closer to $2.5 million, including turnout lanes on Highway 39.
With new standards in place for Transport Canada, the crossing will have to be either closed or have safety upgrades by November of 2021. According to information from LoVecchio, CP Rail would look for the City of Weyburn to cover at least half the cost of a new warning system, which they estimate would cost between $250,000 and $350,000.
“Anyone who has driven through it knows it is a poor crossing with poor sight-lines,” he said, noting of the known collisions at the crossing none of them have been fatalities. “We’re aware of them, our crews note them and it’s a discussion we have internally.”
Coun. Dick Michel said he opposes closing the crossing mainly because it would force more traffic to go through the intersection of Highways 39 and 13, which he called “the worst intersection in Saskatchewan”, and noted that council has talked about this problem before but no actions have been taken.
He also pointed out that in the statistics on collisions, six of the seven known collisions since 2010 have taken place since the train speeds were increased on the Soo Line.
Coun. Jeff Richards agreed that the crossing shouldn’t be closed, and pointed out that anecdotally there have been far more than seven collisions in the last 20 years at the other crossings in Weyburn.
Coun. Brad Wheeler also agreed with keeping the crossing open, and suggested with successful businesses in that area, the city needs to talk to them along with citizens to find out what their views would be of closing that crossing.
“I see the safety aspect of this. I’m also very familiar with the accidents at Highways 39 and 13, a very terrible intersection to say the least,” said Coun. Winston Bailey. “I hope we can work something out.”
Coun. Jeff Chessall said the city needs to do something and not wait for 2021. “It’s something we should get handled and get it up to standards,” he said, suggesting the city should reach out to the community to see how they feel about spending $1.3 million to upgrade that crossing.
LoVecchio was asked if CP Rail would be open at all to relocating the Soo Line around the city, and he said, “The short answer is no. The tracks meet our needs as an operating railroad. … This is our main line between Canada and the U.S. We don’t see a business case to move it.”
Mayor Marcel Roy pointed out that the City would probably have to foot the bill for any safety upgrades, and said the $2.5 million figure would have to come out of city taxes, as there is no government grant, other than a $25,000 grant towards closing the crossing.
He also said there is a safety hazard to the many trains with empty oil cars going through the city, and suggested it was a question of when, not if, a major accident would occur.
On the issue of train speeds, LoVecchio said trains slow down to 25 miles per hour when going through the city, although he was reluctant to say what train speeds were when they went through the Queen Street crossing from the north, noting it depends on the weight of the train as to how quickly it can decelerate.
After hearing the council’s concerns on closing the crossing, LoVecchio empathized with them, noting how difficult this decision is for them, but reiterated CP’s stance that they would like this crossing to be closed.
Coun. Bailey made a resolution for the City to investigate this issue, including getting the views of residents and of the business community, within the next two months, and told LoVecchio that this motion is not a “copout” to dealing with the issue.
