Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove (centre) is expressing a huge sigh of relief now that Transport Canada has lifted its previous order mandating train whistling and reduced train speeds through Chilliwack.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Train whistling in Chilliwack

Mayor Ken Popove breathes huge sigh of relief after mandatory train whistling ends in Chilliwack

Aug 22, 2024 | 3:14 PM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove says he’s more than relieved that Transport Canada has lifted its previous order mandating train whistling and reduced train speeds through a stretch of Chilliwack from Prest Road through to Eagle Landing Parkway.

“100 per cent relief,” Mayor Popove told Fraser Valley Today over the phone Thursday morning (Aug. 22). “It’ll certainly stop the flow of emails I’ve been getting to get this train whistling stopped. It was a lot of emails. I didn’t keep track.”

As reported by Fraser Valley Today earlier this week, train whistling and reduced speeds are no longer mandatory under a federal order when trains travel through Chilliwack. According to an email from Liana Wiebe, communications manager for the City of Chilliwack, CN Rail advised the City on Saturday, August 17 that Transport Canada lifted its previous order for reduced speed and whistling through Chilliwack. The order went into effect after a pedestrian was fatally struck by a train on June 5.

City personnel collaborated with CN Rail personnel to harden up some areas. An inspector surveyed the area, Popove said, and CN crews brushed up areas along the track.

“When I was talking to CN Police, he had noticed a big difference of less people in that area,” Popove said. “CN did a lot of really extensive brushing work. There were camps set up along the corridor. They’ll have to brush a couple times a year to kind of keep it down. The goal was to limit the access to track areas. We as a city had 3-4 spots to harden up that were easy access, the same with CN. We got right on it. The work had to be done.”

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While the train whistling is no longer mandatory, Mayor Popove did say a railroad engineer still has the ability to activate a whistle if an animal or person is present on the tracks.

“Not all engineers are the same,” he saaid. “Some blow the whistle short, some [do it longer].”

Popove said he sent emails to Transport Canada to advocate on behalf of Chilliwack residents who were impacted by train whistles that sometimes activated every half hour.

“MP Mark Strahl was helping out to do what he could do,” Popove noted. “It look a lot of work advocating and complaining. People were really feeling a lot of mental anguish. I can’t imagine a train whistle every half hour. That is behind us. We’ve done it. That chapter closes.”