CN Rail and Cramahe Township Interim Fire Chief have come to a proposed resolution regarding a re-occurring problem along the rail lines in Colborne.
On Friday, April 26, 2019, Ontario Street, Victoria Street were blocked by a freight train and the Durham Street rail crossings were down from approximately 2:15 p.m. to around midnight.
Speaking to Today’s Northumberland on Saturday, April 27, 2019, Media Relations Director Jonathan Abecassis said, “CN Rail apologizes to the town for the inconvenience.”
The issue was a mechanical issue between two rail cars on the freight train.
CN Rail did notify Ontario Provincial Police about the freight train blocking the crossings in Colborne 30 minutes after the incident took place, but Cramahe Fire Department was only told after a citizen informed them.
The incident has happened numerous times in the past several weeks said Interim Fire Chief Tim Burgess.
A number of school buses also had to turn around and take the students back to the school.
Speaking with Today’s Northumberland on Monday, April 29, 2019, Interim Chief Tim Burgess said there was a call between himself and a senior official from CN on Monday morning.
After speaking with CN Rail, Burgess said, “it was a breakdown in communication.”
CN Rail notified Ontario Provincial Police, but unfortunately Cramahe Township Fire Department was not notified.
“I’m very happy with our communications with CN today.”
“CN appears to be very committed to the safety and wanted to listen to the residents. They understand the situation.”
Burgess said along with County Fire Coordinator Tim Blake (Chief Trent Hills Fire Department) and Alternate Coordinator Gene Thompson (Deputy Chief Cobourg Fire Department) have come up with a plan moving forward that hopefully will be implemented by CN.
Burgess said the plan is to hopefully change the notification protocol, “making it quicker and guaranteed that we get the information all throughout Northumberland.”
Once implemented if there were a train blocking a rail crossing, CN Rail would notify fire dispatch in Peterborough within 30-minutes of the problem and give a location which crossings are blocked.
The County Fire Coordinators would also be notified and the fire departments in the area where the train is blocking would have an information page sent out.
“Were cutting out the middle man and going from CN to Peterborough Dispatch.”
Previously CN would notify OPP who would hopefully notify area fire departments.
“It gives us a quicker and more guaranteed information trail.”
But with CN Rail being a large organization, it could take time.
“But we have a commitment from CN to look into this and try to make the changes we propose.”
“I’m very happy,” said Burgess.
“It was a positive discussion.”
“I’d really like to thank the residents for reaching out to the fire department. Without their help I wouldn’t have known about it.”
When the new system is in operation it will benefit all municipalities along the rail corridor throughout Northumberland County and Burgess said possibly beyond.
“We’re not the only people that have rail lines go through our communities and houses close to them.”
“This could represent a good model or other communities to get faster more reliable information.”
Rail Crossings Blocked In Cramahe Township Delay Emergency Services
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
