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Letter: Trains keep blowing their whistles in Maple Ridge

City embarked on train whistle cessation program
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Residents still bothered by train whistles. (THE NEWS/files)

Editor, The News:

I recently read the Sept. 19 News story, “No more horns from trains running through Maple Ridge,” and I’m wondering if you plan to do any follow-up now that it is the new year? Mostly because the train horns/whistles have not stopped.

I grew up in Maple Ridge, near Thomas Haney secondary, and hearing the train whistles (and fog horns on the river) was common, and calming. It never really stood out because it was a normal, infrequent, background noise. I grew up, moved away, and have recently moved back – now in the Kanaka Creek area.

I was completely thrown by how loud and frequent the horns are now.

They were absolutely not this frequent in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now, we are woken up multiple times per night when a train goes by, as it honks its horn three to eight times in a 10-second period … and then 30 seconds later, does it again. They are really laying on the horns and doing them way way more than necessary. It’s absurd how different it is.

We spoke with neighbours and were ecstatic to hear that the city planned to put a stop to it, just like Pitt Meadows had done. But then the new year passed, and the horns are still going. It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Monday morning, and since I woke up at 5 a.m., I’ve heard the horns going in multi-horn blasts at least 10 times.

This is not new – it’s done this all day and night, every day since New Year’s.

M. Blanchard (a sleepless citizen)

Maple Ridge

(Editor’s Note: The City of Maple Ridge is working through Transport Canada’s multi-phase, train-whistle cessation process.