Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove (centre) is pictured with members of council. Mayor Popove has objected to additional demands made by CN Rail in the aftermath of a man's fatality near Eagle Landing Parkway that resulted in train whistling and slower trains being instituted in Chilliwack.
Mayor Ken Popove

Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove objects to additional demands made by CN Rail following fatality

Jun 13, 2024 | 10:45 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove has objected to additional demands made by CN Rail in the aftermath of a man’s fatality near Eagle Landing Parkway 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 is doing the opposite.

“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.”

Mayor Popove said there’s no easy solution 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 said. “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.”

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