‘Give us a break’: Chilliwack residents sound off about incessant train horns

Chilliwack, B.C., residents are sounding off about sleepless nights caused by horns of trains passing through the Fraser Valley community.

“You don’t get much sleep because, by the time you get back to sleep half an hour later, there’s another one coming,” said Ian Pippin, who lives near the CN Rail track where it passes through the city.

“Sometimes it’s like, ‘OK Chilliwack, time to wake up,’ and it’s like whoa, come on buddy, give us a break.”

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While noise associated with trains is nothing new, the frequency of their horns through Chilliwack is.

On June 7, following a pedestrian fatality at a crossing near Eagle Landing Parkway, Transport Canada issued a ‘slow order’ to CN.

The order requires the company to reduce its train speeds and to apply a “3-second continuous whistle” at marker points through an eight-kilometre corridor and submit a corrective action plan to the regulator.

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Pippin said his daughter, who has Asperger’s, has had to go stay with her mother in the Okanagan for the summer because of the noise.

“She says, ‘These trains keep waking me up every night and I can’t sleep,'” he said.

Neighbour Azul Gomez said the horns sound at all hours of the night.

She said the worst are blasts in the early morning because often her children will remain awake until daytime.

“It’s hard for the kids to go to sleep when there’s a big honking horn right at the window,” she said.

“Definitely take a second look at protocol, especially before school starts because it’s going to be detrimental, I think, for the kids’ health and sleep.”

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In a statement, CN said an anti-whistling agreement at crossings remained in effect, and that it was working on a number of safety measures in the area including signage, repaired fencing and education.

“CN continues to work with the city of Chilliwack and other partner organizations to come to a solution that increases rail safety in Chilliwack while also continuing to provide reliable service to our customers,” the company said.

At last week’s city council meeting, Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove said CN had recently taken him for a guided walk on the rail corridor to show the progress of safety improvements.

But he said it may yet be some time before residents are getting a full night’s sleep,

“We really want to get these whistles stopped, but Transport Canada is really playing hardball with us, they want to see all the work being done,” he said.

“It’s going to take a bit, but we are pushing hard to get that whistle cessation back in place because folks who live in earshot of the railways are really having a hard time coping with this.”

Pippin, meanwhile, said he wants Transport Canada and CN to talk to locals to get a sense of the impact they’re having.

“And maybe we can come up with something that’s going to work,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s really helping anything, it’s just annoying everyone.”