A pedestrian suffered serious, but non-life-threatening injuries when the man in his 30s was struck by a train while walking along the railway tracks at Klahanie Drive and Murray Street Saturday morning, April 20.
Const. Sam Zacharias, spokesperson for the Port Moody Police Department (PMPD), said the incident occurred at about 10 a.m.
He said it’s believed to have been an accident and railway police from Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC), which operates the spur line that runs to Ioco, have taken over the investigation.
Residents in the Klahanie neighbourhood adjacent to the tracks have been advocating for trains to stop blowing their whistles when approaching the crossing at Murray Street.
In 2021, they presented a petition with about 100 signatures to Port Moody council complaining the noise from passing trains is “so incredible, you can’t even hear what is going on in your apartment.”
The residents called for the installation of gates at the crossing so trains wouldn’t have to blow their whistles to warn pedestrians and motorists of their approach.
But a report by the city’s engineering department said with only about two trains a day using the tracks that connect the main CP line to the old Imperial Oil refinery, the crossing at Murray Street, as well as nine other locations along the way, would be an expensive and complicated endeavour.
Project manager Sandy Tolentino said whistle cessation assessments would have to be conducted at each crossing and infrastructure like fencing and gates would have to be installed at Murray Street and possibly near the pedestrian crossing behind Trasolini field, along with additional pavement markings and signs, at a cost of almost $180,000.
Then, added Tolentino, the city would have to submit resolutions to CP Rail and other organizations like Transport Canada’s Rail Safety Directorate for review, a process that can take years.
Residents along New Westminster’s waterfront lobbied for almost two decades to get trains to stop using their whistles at three crossings in that city’s downtown area.
