Work should be done by end of January

The train horns will keep blasting through Maple Ridge for at least the rest of this January.

City council voted in September to stop the train horns, or whistles, after signing on to Transport Canada’s whistle cessation program.

Before the whistles stopped however, 1.8-metre-high security fences, at both Port Haney and Maple Meadows Way stations, had to be built to keep people from crossing the tracks in the area.

Those fences should be complete by the end of January, Darrell Denton, property and risk manager with the City of Maple Ridge, said Tuesday.

Once the fences are complete, the city expects that CP Railway will tell Transport Canada that it will stop sounding the horns within 30 days.

“Until then, train whistles at the Maple Ridge’s crossings will still be permitted,” Denton said.

Denton added that the process “has taken considerably longer than originally anticipated,” but looks forward to its conclusion.

Council’s resolution in September was one of the final steps required under Transport Canada’s whistle cessation process that the city must follow in order to stop the horns.

Minor improvements at the rail crossings in Maple Ridge required under the process, cost about $30,000, although the security fence cost about $40,000.

The other railway crossings where horns no longer will be sounded are at 113B Avenue, Lorne Avenue, Ditton Street, River Road/Tamarack Lane, 240th Street and 287th Street, basically along the length of the track from one end of Maple Ridge to the other.

The decision also applies to the West Coast Express commuter system, which runs on weekdays.