Residents of a downtown Kitchener neighbourhood say an overzealous train warning signal continues to sound for hours, even when there’s no train in the vicinity.
“It goes on for hours at a time. It’s a nuisance,” says Krystal Collingwood, who lives near Weber and Wellington streets.
“People don’t know that it’s safe to cross, that the train has already come by.”
Most recently, Collingwood says, the signal began sounding around 7:30 p.m. Monday – and didn’t stop for close to four hours.
Although the train tracks in that area are only a branch of the main CN Rail line, they are in regular use.
When the warning sounds, drivers face three choices – wait it out, turn around and find an alternate route, or drive over the tracks anyhow.
In most cases, those who pick option one eventually switch to one of the other options anyhow.
“The guy ain’t going to take a chance to go through a flashing light … so they all stop, and wait,” says Eugene Robichaud, who also lives nearby.
Robichaud says he’s seen lengthy lines of traffic down Wellington as drivers wait for a train that has long passed.
Collingwood says she’s called CN Rail about the issue multiple times.
In response, she says, they send out a technician, and all appears well – but a week or so later, the problem starts up again.
A work crew was on site at the line Tuesday morning, but declined to say what they were doing there.
