Wonder if there is any rhyme or reason to these periods of alternating quiet and then busy, busy trains.

Short Version: Nothing is changing. Trains will stay. They will continue to be noisy. Maple will still be built as planned. Council would like to do something about the train noise and vibration, but they have no authority over CN.

Long Version:

As I mentioned earlier I thought the meeting with Sohi and the Planning Dept went well but it was mostly informational. They asked me questions. I asked questions. I suggested that the Maple subdivision will be an unpleasant subdivision (given the train noise) and dangerous (given that the only way out of the subdivision will be via crossing train tracks).

Here’s a list of things mentioned in the meeting:

• Crossing. There will be two crossings into Maple. Both will have train crossing-arm systems on them (lights + noise). Sohi will look into seeing if the noise can be turned off at night (otherwise every train passing by at night, even the silent ones, will suddenly become noisy because the crossing system will activate at both crossings).  Sohi still has to look into who is responsible for building the crossings and when they will be built. I am especially feeling sorry for the people in the new townhouses right beside the track… one of the train crossings will be right beside their homes. Don’t imagine they’ll be getting much sleep.
• Future Subdivisions. There are plans to consider better regulations when building new subdivisions near train tracks. This proposal has not been presented or approved yet but from my understanding will affect future subdivisions (not Tamarack or Maple)
• Noisy. Lots of discussion on noise and vibration — both seem to be areas of ongoing research. Not a lot is known about how far vibrations from railways extend out from a railway, for example.
• Was Industrial. Interesting to note that Tamarack and Maple were both supposed to be industrial areas but previous councils changed the zoning to allow them to become residential instead. One of the reasons cited for them not being industrial was lack of access.

So Sohi and the city employees listened to my concerns but I’m not really sure much can be done about the train now. I wish more attention had been spent on my earlier protests against the Maple subdivision being built before it was approved by council. Anyways if you have questions about specifics please leave comments here and I’ll answer the questions.

Also, check out this story about a local man fighting another battle with CN Rail trying to stop a rail yard from being built next to his property.

Well it is 7am, time to get up and watch some cartoons.

Basically both exits were (almost) completely cut off. As usual Park Paving did not put out any signs or barricades, only a couple flag person right before the repaving section — so instead of saving drivers a huge hassle by ‘designing’ a blockade route, they just annoy everyone instead.

Add to that all the workers parking their vehicles alongside the main drags and heavy machinery moving from one side of Tamarack to the other… now is definitely not the time check this subdivision out.

I can’t possibly imagine how Maple’s development is not going to turn into a major traffic congestion headache.

I do have a question for any of you whose homes are backing onto the track. Supposedly on your property title you should have a warning/notification about the CN Rail right of way. If one or two of you could let me know through comments or email it would be appreciated.

I think this is more of a ‘how do we avoid issues in the future’ than a ‘how to fix existing problems’ kind of meeting but if you have anything you think might be relevant to bring up please let me know. The meeting is on July 15th. I’ll post an update to let you know how it went.

Also some new comments up on the petition:

Today illustrated a big problem with it. The areas around both exits are still very much under construction so they’ve been a bit of a pain to get into and out of this summer — crews blocking one street, requiring you to go circle back the other way and so on. Not a huge issue, just an inconvenience.

But today both exits were blocked off. One by paving — and the signal people were doing a poor job of explaining this to people but that’s another issue. Unfortunately when I went around to the other exit crews were unloading machines. Ended up waiting five minutes.

Obviously once construction is done this will be less of a problem — though I don’t really understand why they have to repave an entire subdivision when its only a couple years ago, that seems poor planning — but having only two exits is  a problem. Because Tamarack and Maple are wedged at the outside of the city boundary, I’m wondering if anything can be done about this. Have some concerns — more about Maple which is cut off the train track — in the future in regards to emergency services.

Of course it did wake the kids, which is always fun in the middle of the night.

Don’t know if the driver was just going too fast, or what, but hopefully this is not a trend for summer.

Been a while since I’ve seriously considering calling a Realtor but this morning is one of those…