Via Rail trains will stop whistling near the Greenbank Road crossing just after midnight Friday after a City of Ottawa motion asked the company to do so.

A Via Rail news release issued Wednesday said trains will cease whistling at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.

Some Barrhaven residents have complained about excessive noise at Greenbank Road where construction of a new rail underpass began in February.

While similar bylaws prevent whistling at other railway crossings in Ottawa, there was not a bylaw for this particular crossing during construction.

In June, the city voted to silence the whistling even though mayor Jim Watson and five councillors dissented.

Federal laws require trains to sound their whistle before they reach the crossing's work site. The construction of a new rail crossing had already been under consideration when six people died in a September 2013 collision between an OC Transpo bus and a Via Rail passenger train.

The fatal collision spurred a push to replace level crossings in the city with either overpasses or underpasses.

Prior to construction, a bylaw was in place to stop whistling. Staff members at Via Rail and the City of Ottawa will monitor the crossing as the work continues, the news release added.

The city has said most of the work on the Greenbank underpass will be done by late fall 2016, with finishing work and landscaping ongoing until the summer of 2017.

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