South Walkerville resident continues train whistle fight

John West said he is fighting through, “chronic sleep problems, high blood pressure, depression, [and] anxiety.”

He said it’s all a result of train whistle noises in his neighbourhood, as trains must sound their horns a quarter mile from a public grade crossing when travelling faster than 70 km/hour.

West said he hears the horns, “Seven days a week.”

The 69 year old has been logging the amount of times he and his family hear a train horn and the intensity of the sound and told CTV News Windsor, “Sometimes now up to 91 times a day.”

That’s a number he logged earlier in the month of January.

West was out Tuesday morning showing his displeasure with Essex Terminal Railway (ETR). He has been asking to see the results of an ETR decibel report that was done last summer.

He said, “We don't believe that the train whistle noise is 96 decibels,” which is the minimum level allowed by Transport Canada.

In a statement, ETR said it has “has confirmed that it is in compliance with the minimum decibel levels for train whistles under mandatory federal regulations and Transport Canada. Whistles are required at grade crossings to maintain driver, cyclist and pedestrian safety.”

The statement said the ETR continues to “review our operational plans to minimize noise where possible while providing essential services to our customers."

West has encouraged government officials to install crossing gates negating the need for the whistle horn.

“They do have some rail safety grants and the application is open right now and I believe administration is looking into that,” said Ward 4 Coun. Mark McKenzie. “Unfortunately also with those grants it's very specific what you can spend that money on.”

Late last year city council approved a $44 million passenger service between Chicago and Toronto involving Amtrack and Via Rail using some of the ETR lines.

“We do have some knowledge that OK, they are going to be upgrading some of these ETR lines possibly with fencing. Maybe the arms that come down as well so we're hoping that that will actually fix some of these whistle issues that we're hearing about,” McKenzie said.

In the meantime, West plans to keep his battle on track.

He is seeking legal counsel and will continue to demonstrate. He’ll also be at city hall Wednesday before the Standing Committee meeting, and he plans to be outside of Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk’s office Thursday with a sign.