{"id":35088,"date":"2024-09-19T17:14:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35088"},"modified":"2024-09-19T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T21:14:12","slug":"review-of-whistle-cessation-policies-gets-initial-council-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/review-of-whistle-cessation-policies-gets-initial-council-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of whistle cessation policies gets initial Council support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A review of policies related to a train whistle cessation program in Aurora has received tentative support from Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting at the Committee level last week, Council voted in favour of a motion from Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese that will, if ratified at this month\u2019s Council meeting on September 24, see staff report back on \u201cthe processes needed to create a bylaw that will result in the cessation of train whistles\/horns at all level crossings in Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran reported at the start of the month, the impending increase in GO Train service along the Barrie Line, which will see all-day two-way train service to and from Aurora, spurred Councillor Weese to bring this matter forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told his Council colleagues that this is \u201cabout staff revisiting the work that has been previously done\u201d to have a \u201cfulsome discussion\u201d through the lens of safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have spoken to staff about changes to the process and there are some processes that may have changed with respect to Transport Canada and the safety of the level crossings, and there are about 2,500 units I estimate that are within 400 metres of the train tracks that go all the way from the south end to the north end of the Town,\u201d said Councillor Weese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hope with this motion is that we are going to update the information that Council needs to make an informed decision about the train horns and do it in anticipation of the double track construction and the increased traffic along the trains. It\u2019s really about staff revisiting the work that has been previously done, asking for the report to come back so that we can have a fulsome discussion about the future of the train, and I also think it\u2019s important for us to do this work now because I believe there [are] going to be some decisions being made very soon so that within a couple of years the project may be finished, if you can believe what the Metrolinx people say about finishing their work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting the motion was Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner who said much of the work has already been done in previous Councils. She thanked Councillor Weese for not letting the issue \u201cfall through the cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom my estimation, it means that every seven-and-a-half minutes a train will be passing an intersection,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be unbearable for the people who live close to the railway tracks and for those who say they shouldn\u2019t have bought a place there, I mean, who had any idea that we were going to have this kind of train traffic?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson was also in favour of bringing a report back, requesting that the resulting report will address safety issues, including statistics from other municipalities that have gone down a similar cessation route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always come down to questions about quality of life versus liability, versus safety,\u201d said Councillor Thompson, referencing past attempts to get a cessation program in place. \u201cI think those components should be within that report so that Council makes a well-informed decision on what they feel is the best way forward. I know a lot of the work has probably already been done when it comes to liability because it has been in previous reports, so it shouldn\u2019t be too onerous a task to [include that] but I would also like to make mention when I looked at reports from other municipalities like Halton Hills and Innisfil, they have made references to studies in the past\u2026 where there is a whistle ban or whistle cessation and that\u2026 based on the studies there\u2019s a significantly higher rate of accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would ask staff to look into the data and perhaps even the Mayor with the Region to see if there are any statistics, any data that shows is there any validity in these claims from these other reports that there is a higher rate of accidents at these crossings that have whistle cessation. I think that\u2019s an important factor for all of us to give consideration when we give a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A review of policies related to a train whistle cessation program in Aurora has received tentative support from Council. Sitting at the Committee level last week, Council voted in favour of a motion from Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese that will, if ratified at this month\u2019s Council meeting on September 24, see staff report back […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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-35088","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\/p3D2k4-97W","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 21:57:56","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\/35088","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=35088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}