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One of the more piercing questions since the fatal OC Transpo crash with a train almost a year ago has not been the competency of bus service, but the performance of Via Rail.

While there’s no indication any blame lies with the railway, the attack-line to an anxious public has been this: How well does Via run a railroad, when it can’t run a crossing signal?

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Egan: Via alerted to 223 signal faults near Fallowfield in five years Back to video

Using the access-to-information law, the Citizen has obtained 65 pages of documents that finally put the story of the wonky road-rail signals in Barrhaven through a longer lens.

The numbers confirm Via has known for years that a number of the six signals in the immediate area around Fallowfield station have needed repeated attention, sometimes several times a month.

A tabulation from 2009 to 2013 shows Via responded to at least 223 incidents involving defective operations at six well-travelled intersections: Woodroffe, the OC Transitway, Fallowfield, Greenbank, Jockvale and Strandherd.