I have recently moved to this area and live in a wonderfully remote spot in a very small town east of Prince George.
My house lies on the north side of the CN tracks, near a crossing that crosses a siding as well as a main line. This siding is one of the longest on this particular stretch of CN line and is used frequently for the very long trains that travel this stretch. Theoretically, the crossing is only allowed to be blocked for a maximum of 20 minutes; in reality it is blocked up to three hours at least two to three times a week.
There has been an ongoing battle for many, many years now between the residents here and CN. The railway's offer of a solution has been to give us a contact telephone number to the CN police.
Since there is no cell phone coverage here, this means returning home and phoning from there. But the many times we have had to use this number it has never been of any help. The CN police listen very politely and even phone the crew on the trains but the crews can very seldom move their train to free up the crossing because the trains are simply too long.
We all end up having to wait it out until the passing train finally gets there and passes through, no matter how long it takes.
There are four houses on this side of the tracks as well as the public trail up the mountain and a gravel pit maintained by the YRB, but CN insists on classifying this crossing as a "private" crossing. On the other hand, YRB (Yellowhead Road and Bridge) services the road as a public road. There are very different rules and regulations for private crossings and public crossings and CN wants to avoid re-classifying the crossing.
I have a daughter with a disability who travels by school bus to the nearest school. If the trains lock me in, the school bus is stuck and can't be reached because there is no cell phone coverage in this area. On top of this, my daughter has severe medical conditions and I do not even want to think of what would happen if the train locks us in when we have an emergency.
Just this Monday, the train locked us in and my daughter missed a day of school again.
This is an intolerable situation. There would be several different solutions (correct re-classification of the crossing, a new alternative crossing at the end of the siding or a bridge over the tracks and the siding, etc) none of which are being even considered by CN.
Is CN really so big and mighty that it can do what it wants to the residents of any particular area? Even to the point of endangering them? Is this really a situation that can't be resolved? I would like to ask the readers of this paper to help me solve this conflict with CN.
Gundula Meyer-Eppler
Hansard
