{"id":31413,"date":"2022-06-02T19:16:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T23:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31413"},"modified":"2022-06-02T19:20:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T23:20:45","slug":"aurora-aims-at-train-whistle-cessation-at-st-johns-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-aims-at-train-whistle-cessation-at-st-johns-crossing\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora aims at train whistle cessation \u2013 at St. John\u2019s crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It might not be a slam dunk for advocates for a complete ban on train whistles in Aurora, but they may have moved the needle forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week approved the addition of a capital project in the Town\u2019s 2023 Capital Budget to improve pedestrian safety at the St. John\u2019s Sideroad railway crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lawmakers voted in favour of a \u201cdetailed design and peer review of a level crossing at St. John\u2019s along with a request to York Region to implement a 24-hour train whistle cessation\u201d for that specific crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouncil also approved a recommendation to request York Region allocate $1,000,000 in their 2023 budget to implement the necessary crossing upgrades for anti-whistling,\u201d said the Town in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as much as that was a win for advocates, Council subsequently voted against the implementation of Train Whistle Cessation programs on roads under the Town\u2019s jurisdiction, specifically Engelhard Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents this past winter revived efforts to improve pedestrian safety at the Town\u2019s level rail crossings which would subsequently pave the way for a full train whistle cessation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping to fuel their concerns is the Province\u2019s plan to implement two-way all-day 15 minute train service along the Barrie corridor in the coming years. This, they argued, and many Council members agreed, would significantly increase the frequency of train whistles heard throughout the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the Town has four level railway crossings \u2013 at Engelhard Drive, Wellington Street East, Centre Street and St. John\u2019s Sideroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the plan of the Province and Metrolinx, the arm\u2019s length Provincial body which operates GO Transit, includes a traffic underpass at the Wellington Street crossing, this eliminated the Wellington and Centre Street crossings from the equation, along with the costs associated with the pedestrian safety improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Council pressing the Region for action on the St. John\u2019s crossing, Council\u2019s decision last week will leave the Engelhard crossing without any improvements necessary to dampen the horn as trains pass through this location, a stone\u2019s throw from the Wellington GO Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The detailed design and peer review for the safety measures needed for the St. John\u2019s crossing will cost an estimated $95,000, according to Town Staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter passed Council with very little discussion last week, but Councillor John Gallo signalled his support for pursuing similar measures for the Engelhard crossing. Asking to vote separately on the fifth clause before Council, \u201cthat the Train Whistle Cessation Program not be implemented on roads under the Town\u2019s jurisdiction,\u201d he said further consideration was warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just wanted to defeat it and take some time to really analyse and figure out whether to go in that direction, but I didn\u2019t want it to impact the rest of the resolution because I believe in the rest of it,\u201d said Councillor Gallo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It might not be a slam dunk for advocates for a complete ban on train whistles in Aurora, but they may have moved the needle forward. Council last week approved the addition of a capital project in the Town\u2019s 2023 Capital Budget to improve pedestrian safety at the St. John\u2019s Sideroad railway crossing. Local lawmakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8aF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 02:54:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}