Opportunity to Address Railway Noise and Vibration in Canada

Rail and Reason has just posted an excellent article on the federal government’s recent launch of a review of the Canada Transportation Act. The last time the Act was reviewed and new regulations proposed, particularly with respect to railway noise and vibration, the railway industry managed to do an end-run and convinced the Senate that the potential impact of railway noise and vibration on people living next to railroads did not need to be considered when Canadian rail companies build and operate railways.

According to Rail and Reason, the current legislative review, which focuses on the growing number of catastrophic derailments and the unprecedented backlog of grain shipments in Canada, provides an opportunity for another very contentious part of rail transport to be reviewed…namely, railway noise and vibration.

Rail and Reason provides information on how Canadians can submit comments on existing provisions in the Act for railway noise and vibration. Interested parties may send submissions to a recently-appointed Secretariat by December 30, 2014.

Considering the growing number of media articles on citizens’ complaints about unreasonable railway noise and vibration in Canada, we strongly encourage individual Canadians, municipalities, communities and organizations to send their concerns to the Canada Transportation Act Review Secretariat by the end of December. In particular, we encourage the hundreds of individuals who have contacted Railroaded over the past 4 years, expressing concerns about unreasonable railway noise and vibration, to send a submission to the Secretariat. We also strongly encourage our readers to read the entire Rail and Reason article on this subject.

People from across Canada have contacted us with their concerns about the negative impacts of unreasonable railway noise and vibration on their sleep, health, property values and overall quality of life.

Now it’s up to all of us who are concerned about these negative impacts to make the Canada Transportation Act Review Secretariat aware of our concerns.

~ by railroaded on September 24, 2014.