In this issue of the Journal, you'll see a couple of stories featuring train safety, from the recent death of a local CN worker to the liability trains are under for carrying dangerous cargo.
But there's something else that is worrisome in regards to trains in Humboldt. In fact, in my opinion, it's an urgent situation that needs to be addressed immediately.
The lack of an underpass or overpass in Humboldt.
We recently polled readers on our Humboldt Journal website to see if they thought the construction of this mechanism was an urgent matter; 57 per cent said yes, 42 per cent said no.
I'll tell you why it is.
It has nothing to do with the frustration and hair-pulling when you're on your way to work or a nice weekend trip and the train is pulling through town, taking 15 minutes to do so, budding into your schedule and pushing your day back a bit.
Yes, that's obviously annoying.
Very annoying.
A few weekends ago, we were just leaving Humboldt for Regina for a Riders game (that ice-game that was played in sub-zero temperatures where the crowd was on the brink of hyperthermia for the entire game).
Well to our sheer delight, the train was moseying on through, taking its sweet time, dum dee dum dee dum.
We waited for 14 minutes, cars piling up behind us.
That's when it really occurred to me:
What if we weren't just two Riders fans in a car on the way to a football game? What if we were an ambulance or a fire truck that desperately needed to get to south side of the city? Someone's home could be on fire, someone could be in need of urgent medical care.
And in those dire situations, every single second that goes by where an emergency medical service hasn't yet arrived, is critical and costly.
How in the heck would an ambulance ever get past an enormous, hundreds-car freight train, stretching on for miles right in the middle of the city?
Sure, the workers could back it up, upon realizing that it's an emergency but that's still going to take awhile. And the next ambulance service or RCMP detachment close to the southern side of town is located 25 minutes away.
The train tracks that bullet right through the middle of Humboldt are historic, yes, but nostalgia aside, they're a giant liability, a horrible conundrum waiting to happen.
A man brought this exact issue up at the first Our Humboldt community forum back in September. It hit me like a baseball bat to the face. It had never occurred to me and yet it's such an obvious dilemma. How could I be so foolish?
It's an issue that needs to be addressed, although it's not an easy one. To construct an overpass or underpass to divert the train would cost the city a whopping amount of money and it's unclear if this issue is really at the forefront in their minds, when there's certainly other goals to be addressed.
But it should be. It's not the same as the people who blow steam out of their ears when they're on their way to a manicure but are going to be late because of the train. Yes, the train typically passes through the city around the same time every day or so. So, if you're planning a shopping trip, heading to work or going on an ice-fishing trip for the weekend, you can plan ahead.
But emergency situations can happen any time, anywhere. They're random, unpredictable and can very well occur right when a CN freight train has decided to bunker down smack in the middle of Humboldt.
Then what?
With more and more people moving to this area each year, that means there'll be an influx in houses, apartments and subdivisions being built to accommodate these new residents and the more structures there are in town, and the more people to live in them, then chances of emergency situations and fire outbreaks goes up.
Especially medical emergencies.
This situation is literally a matter of life or death and frankly, I don't want to see a life lost or a house destroyed because of this glaring problem before something is done about it.
CM
