Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove (right) is shown during a meeting with CN Rail and CN Rail Police last week. Mayor Popove last week joined staff from CN Rail and CN Rail Police on a tour of their tracks to view efforts to reduce trespassing in response to the order from Transport Canada mandating whistling and reduced train speed, after a man was struck and killed by a CN Rail train in early June.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove

Mayor Popove meets CN Rail, CN Rail Police to discuss trespassing on railroad tracks following fatality

Jul 15, 2024 | 4:20 PM

CHILLIWACK — The City of Chilliwack says Mayor Ken Popove recently met representatives from CN Rail and CN Rail Police to collaborate in the aftermath of a train fatality in June, which resulted in slower trains through Chilliwack and the immediate institution of loud train whistling.

According to a social media post Monday (July 15) from the City of Chilliwack, Mayor Popove last week joined staff from CN Rail and CN Rail Police on a tour of their tracks to view efforts to reduce trespassing in response to the order from Transport Canada mandating whistling and reduced train speed.

On Wednesday, June 5, Mounties in Chilliwack responded to a report of a pedestrian being struck by a train near Eagle Landing Parkway. On arrival, Chilliwack RCMP officers located a deceased male in the area that had suffered injuries consistent with being struck by a train. The male was identified, RCMP Cpl. Carmen Kiener said, and his identity was not released.

In mid-June, Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove objected to additional demands made by CN Rail in the aftermath of the man’s fatality that resulted in train whistling and slower trains being instituted in Chilliwack.

Rather than shore up its own railways and deploy CN Police to patrol its own tracks, Mayor Popove told 89.5 JR Country radio host Glen Slingerland Thursday morning, June 13 that CN Rail was doing the opposite.

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“We’ve been in contact with CN, the amount of complaints we’re getting,” Mayor Popove said Thursday morning. “CN is kinda throwing it back at us and says, you should send your police in there and kick at these people. Realistically, no, that’s not gonna happen! At the end of the day, that’s your responsibility, you’ve got CN Police, do your job, send a brusher in there and clean up the tracks. They wanted us to do that as well. We said [as a city] we’re not doing that, it’s their responsibility to do that.”

There appears to be a change in tone since that date as evidenced by the visit between Popove and reps from CN Rail and CN Rail Police.

Chilliwack residents who have concerns or complaints about CN Rail’s operations should contact the appropriate authorities, according to the city’s website. This includes the following agencies and their contact information:

• CN Rail Public Inquiry Line: 1-888-888-5909, or contact@cn.ca.
• Transport Canada’s Pacific Regional Rail Safety Office: 604-666-0011.

Mayor Popove told 89.5 JR Country there’s no easy solutions around continuous train whistling, but it has certainly attracted a fair share of communication to the City of Chilliwack.

“I feel for ya, we’re doing our best to try to come up with other solutions,” Mayor Popove told Slingerland on June 13. “A solution? I don’t know what it is. It’s certainly filling my inbox. We have a standard response. There’s not a whole lot of teeth that the City of Chilliwack can [use to] solve this problem. I’m sorry. We’ll continue to advocate for the folks that live close to the rail lines. It’s a problem on both sides.”