Skip to content

Irricana senior hopes for better visibility at local railway crossing

“When you stop at that stop sign, it’s actually blocking the view of people driving north going to the landfill site or to the farms and Pioneer Acres.”
ln-obstructedview
An Irricana-area senior claims the train cars adjacent to the railway tracks in Irricana are obstructing motorists' view at the four-way stop.

A rural senior who lives outside Irricana has some concerns a railway crossing in the town is presenting a serious safety hazard for motorists.

Rocky View County resident Dave Carnegie claims train cars on the south side of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) tracks that come through Irricana are obstructing motorists’ view as they depart the town heading northwest, along First Avenue.

“It’s curved, simply because they bring the trains in and take the train cars out after they’ve sat there for however long they want to leave them there,” Carnegie said. “But anyway, they have tanker cars there, and because of the curvature of that siding, it’s even wider than the average train.

“When you stop at that stop sign, it’s actually blocking the view of people driving north going to the landfill site or to the farms and Pioneer Acres.”

Carnegie said he had a close call one day at the railway crossing last summer, when he went the tracks in his vehicle and a train came whizzing by just seconds later. He claimed there was no train whistle, (which he said he would have heard, as he was driving with his window down) and that he would have seen an approaching train a few minutes earlier, as he was driving parallel to the tracks as he came into Irricana from the south.

“I stopped at the stop sign, looked both ways, and couldn’t hear a train,” he said.

After his close call, Carnegie said he sent a letter to CNR about the issue. He claimed they initially didn’t respond to his correspondence for quite some time, before eventually sending a small crew of workers to inspect the railway crossing in person.

But Carnegie said nothing was done afterwards, and he never heard from CNR about the issue again.

“Of course, they went out there, took a quick look to see what complaint I was talking about, and then left,” he claimed. “I didn’t hear back again, and they didn’t remove the cars as recommended by me.”

Following his first letter, Carnegie said he then approached the local RCMP detachment and also talked to someone from the Town of Irricana about the issue, and a Town employee told him they tried years ago to get CNR to do something about the train cars.

“CNR basically said, ‘We’ll put it in if you pay for it’ – that’s basically as far as it went,” Carnegie claimed.

The rural Irricana resident said he’s considered starting some kind of petition, though he added as a senior with mobility issues, he doesn’t want to take the lead on such a campaign.

But he doesn’t think he’s the only one in the town who has concerns about the railway crossing, and figures something should be done about it.

“I’m not going to go door to door to door – I’m just not going to do that – but somebody will, I’m quite certain of it,” he said.

By reaching out to local media, Carnegie said he hopes if CNR is made more aware of the potential seriousness of the issue, the company will agree to move the siding or train cars further down the tracks or elsewhere as to not obstruct the view of motorists at that particular four-way stop.

“We’re looking at safety being an issue here – not the dollar figure,” he said.

In response to a request for comment from the Rocky View Weekly, CNR submitted an emailed reply shortly before the newspaper's deadline, stating the company has conducted a review after a concern was brought forward regarding available sight lines at the Irricana crossing,

“Crossings are a shared responsibility between the Road Authority of jurisdiction and the Railway,” the statement read. “CN will work with the Town of Irricana to explore any other opportunities to further improve drivers’ experience at this crossing.”

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks