New West residents want tangible answers on train whistle cessation

Patience is running low for some residents who live in Sapperton: they want to know why it’s taking so long for the city and its partners to stop the train whistles from going off at nearby crossings.

When Kevin Lee moved into the building at 258 Nelson’s Court—known as The Columbia, a 26-floor, 242-unit tower—he was appreciative of the overall sense of belonging. 

“There’s an incredible level of community here, and in my mind that outranks the train whistle, but this is just a continuous pest in our lives. It affects our work,” he told New West Anchor.

At a meeting in September, which included area residents and some locals running in the municipal elections, Lee says attendees were emotional as they shared their frustrations, stresses, and challenges around train whistles going off at all hours of the night. Lee says there are a variety of people who live in the building—singles, couples, and people with young children—and everyone just wanted to be heard. 

“I think [the meeting] was almost therapeutic in the sense that this is something we’ve been living with since moving here … my building is two years old, but the Sapperton building [nearby] is five years old … we’ve been dealing with this daily, nightly,” said Lee. 

“Having your sleep being, in an essence, deprived or taken away, that’s a form of torture that they use in certain areas of the world—not to the same extent, and the conditions are very different—but it plays upon the individual psyche.”

As the vice-president of his building’s strata, Lee says the train whistles go beyond being an annoyance. He says he’s heard from people whose young children have woken up at night after hearing the whistles. Lee says it’s become common to have discussions with others in the building about kids’ sleep being disrupted. 

“[This is] their place where they raise their kids, and they’re concerned about their kids’ hearing. When the train goes by, all they can do is cover their ears…you have to wonder, what does it mean potentially for long-term? Will there be any damage? I don’t have the answer for that, but it pops into my mind.”

Along with children in the building, Lee says there are some people who work for Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH), which is a three-minute walk. Lee says the issue is two-fold: not only are there health workers who end up with disrupted sleep, but there are also concerns for the patients staying at RCH. 

“We are by Royal Columbian Hospital, there are multiple people in my building who work for Royal Columbian Hospital … and even for the hospital, it affects their patients. And I know this because my friend who lives in the building is a resident there, and she talks about how it interferes with patient meetings.”

Doubling up on the frustrations is word that, prior to moving into the building, some residents were allegedly made certain promises by representatives from its developer, Wesgroup Properties. Lee says some folks were told their windows would be triple-paned—though the majority are double-paned—and that the whistle issue would be taken care of. New West Anchor heard from one other resident who said just one of the windows in their unit is triple-paned, while the rest are double-paned. 

“The thing is, I don’t know how [Wesgroup] could make that promise when they are not involved at all with whistle cessation. I think that’s actually a fault on them. They should be involved in it,” said Lee, who adds that over the summer those without central air had to choose between having the windows open to connect hoses to air conditioning units, or keeping windows closed to suppress the noise from the trains. And it’s not as simple as replacing the double-paned windows, which Lee says would set owners back financially. 

“In our building it’s like, you have to stick with double-pane because that’s going to be a huge building replacement. That would be massively expensive.”

Along with The Columbia, Wesgroup Properties is also the developer responsible for up-and-coming buildings like 100 Braid Street and The Nelson, as well as neighbouring tower The Sapperton. 

What’s the story behind whistle cessation in New West?

Trains have been a big part of New West’s history. For decades, the city has been part of railway networks connecting to other municipalities, including Surrey, Chilliwack, and other parts of the Fraser Valley. As an example, the Southern Railway of British Columbia (SRY) was incorporated in 1897 as the BC Electric Railway. By 1905, BC Electric made Vancouver and Lulu Island branches of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

When the 40s and 50s saw a spike in the use of automobiles regionally, SRY went from shuttling passengers to handling more freight. Today, SRY is a Washington company. Along with SRY, other companies whose trains travel tracks passing through New West include Burlington North Santa Fe (BNSF), Canadian National (CN), and Canadian Pacific (CP). 

To date, there are a total of 22 railway crossings in the city, with 12 on the mainland, and 10 in Queensborough. About half of those crossings are being considered for whistle cessation—the act of trains deliberately not using a whistle at a crossing—and in some cases, cessation has been achieved. 

But cessation isn’t as easy as telling train operators to stop sounding a horn as they make their way along local tracks: whistles go off to let people who may be near a crossing know that a train is coming. Many railways are federally regulated, and companies that operate trains must also be involved in the whistle cessation process. Thus, while the city is involved, it doesn’t have the authority to regulate or restrict train whistles. 

“In order to achieve cessation, you need gates and bells, and all of that equipment needs space,” says Lisa Leblanc, the city’s director of engineering services. To ensure said installations are done properly, New Westminster has an eight-step process to achieve cessation at the crossings of concern. 

“We are very actively working on the ones at Cumberland [and Columbia] and Spruce [and Brunettte] streets in Sapperton, and I know there’s a lot of interest in those crossings because of the Brewery District,” said Leblanc. “So we’re at the point where the designs have been developed and circulated to the railway companies. We’re still waiting to hear back from some of them. We can’t progress until we get confirmation from them that these concepts look good.”

At the Cumberland and Columbia crossing, there are three companies primarily operating trains: CN, CP, and BNSF; the same operators have trains travelling the track at Spruce and Brunette. 

As for the city’s position on claims that Wesgroup would have been able to mitigate train whistles? 

“It’s a difficult thing for me to comment on because I don’t know firsthand how the developers were marketing the buildings, so it’s difficult for me to say … if that was part of the marketing materials, it’s something that we probably would have caught because we would have seen those materials, and would have had a conversation with the developer, and requested that they be mindful of the language being used in terms of promising a timeline.”

Looking ahead to crossings like Cumberland and Spruce, Leblanc says that taking into account the stage both crossings are at, a staffing shortage at city hall, designing and conceptualizing safety changes, and getting companies involved in construction, it could take about a year and a half to two years to achieve cessation. 

“I mean, I would hope that we can manage within that two year window, given all that we know about our staffing challenges…we know about supply chain [issues], we need to start getting used to this and planning with that in mind.”

There used to be a city committee dedicated to whistle cessation and related train matters, which went from being a political committee to a staff-led committee. “There isn’t a political interest on the part of the rail companies. They’re staff of the rail companies that would come to this meeting.” Leblanc said much of the work that would be done through said committees involved staff.

“We have not formally established the staff technical advisory committee, but we have maintained relationships with each of the rail companies that operate here, and we’re in touch with them on an ongoing basis.”

Though the communication has been ongoing, Leblanc hopes a version of that committee will return, having everyone involved in the same room. 

“We learn from each other better that way, and I think that there is some energy that’s generated—even if it’s only quarterly or semi-annually—there’s energy generated by being in the same room together. So we will get back to that, we just haven’t with the pandemic…I would like to see it get started up again in 2023,” says Leblanc. “Having said that, we had a technical staff member who was pretty dedicated to the rail file, and that person has since left the city to move closer to family. We need to fill that position and get that new person trained.”

Where does Wesgroup stand?

New West Anchor reached out to Wesgroup regarding the comments made about train whistle cessation, and was provided with a statement, along with a note dated July 14, 2022, in which Wesgroup’s director of development Graham Brewster outlined an update about cessation. 

“We are aligned in the desire to complete the program for the benefit of residents and businesses. This is a long-standing challenge we collectively want to resolve. As a reminder, the municipality, Transport Canada, the Railroads and other government bodies are the parties which need to reach a solution,” reads the letter. 

“Wesgroup has clearly disclosed on all projects that the location is in close proximity to rail infrastructure, retail, and industrial lands, including wood processing facilities.” The note goes on to say, “As such, the development and strata lots located within the development may be subject to noise, odours, dust, and other disturbances or nuisances from the activities on such industrial, retail, and rail lands.”

“Although the City of New Westminster, Transport Canada, the railroads and various government bodies are responsible for this issue, Wesgroup Properties offered our support, and continues to encourage the City to address whistle cessation in the Brewery District, as we know that it can be disruptive to residents,” Wesgroup wrote in a statement to New West Anchor. “We are aligned, while also recognizing that community safety standards must be met. During the sales process, we acknowledged the issue, while informing buyers that the municipality is actively working on it, and our hope is that it’s managed in a timely manner. We provided no specific timelines as we did not have any.”

Wesgroup added it hopes any Brewery District homeowners will reach out via email at [email protected] should they need any customer support. 

Lee—and the others in his building—just want tangible solutions.

“It’s really frustrating getting this sorted out because I’ve been through this before, and I’m noticing that [these] final steps haven’t been taken…and I know that there have been people in the building communicating … that this needs to be done.”