CP’s citizen brush-off

Canadian Pacific has shot down two separate grassroots citizens’ movements to improve quality of life for Montrealers living near the train tracks. In one, 400 people scratched their names onto a petition calling for the railway to make less noise along Jean-Talon. They demand less nighttime activities, more sound-absorbing landscaping and that the bell at Canora crossing ring only briefly, rather than the entire duration of the train-passing session.

Pierre Spénard, media flak for CP, says Transport Canada insists on a long, loud bell. “Transport Canada is worried that somebody that had sight problems approaching the crossing might not see the gate and get struck by a train,” he says. CP is discussing the idea of landscaping the train side space but, “As soon as you start cutting grass and mowing, it encourages the growth of ragweed.”

CP has also refused a plan to allow for a pedestrian level crossing at Melrose, in NDG. Up until last year, citizens routinely walked over the tracks through holes cut in the fence, but CP has covered the holes and now fines those who try to cross. Spénard promises no end to the frustration caused by the train cop clampdown on NDG pedestrians, many of whom are now forced to walk long detours to pass through the urine- and graffiti-stained, glass-covered Melrose tunnel. “Twenty to 30 trains go by fairly rapidly there, and from everybody’s point of view, a pedestrian level crossing wasn’t safe,” says Spénard. :

—Kristian Gravenor