When I lived in Saskatoon, I lived a few blocks away from the train tracks. In spite of this, I never actually heard the train whistle, save once when there was a near accident. There was a high volume of train traffic, and a busy rail yard nearby, but whistles themselves were a rarity. It is high time that Yorkton looks at a way to quiet the trains in a similar manner.
I understand why the train whistle blows constantly at all hours. Nobody in the engine wants their train to be the one that causes an accident, so a safety first attitude takes hold. The whistle blows because people need to be alerted that a train is there, even if they are well aware already. While sometimes there is a sense that the whistle is going solely because someone just loves blowing it - when describing the average 1:00 a.m. half hour screech to an engineer friend, he admitted it was slightly longer than regulation - I can understand that there is a desire for safety.
However, at this point I question if the noise pollution is actually going to lead to much more safety. If everyone is awakened in the middle of the night, everyone is going to be drowsy, run into each other and be killed. Of course, that's a worst case scenario, but since the noise is becoming an annoying background, I wonder if it even has the desired effect.
I also wonder if it's necessary at all. Saskatoon is a much larger city than Yorkton, and while train-car or train-pedestrian accidents happened, I can't think of an incident where "alcohol was a factor" was not mentioned. That means the pedestrian or car, of course, not the train engineer. The fact is that city traffic is slower and there are plenty of lights, so it's less dangerous than the average rural crossing, and there is less of a need for the constant whistle going.
It's going to get worse as well, if nothing is done. Large scale canola plants mean lots of trains carrying canola products, that's going to inevitably lead to more trains going back and forth throughout the area. The more trains we have, the more whistles we have, and considering that there are already too many to count, it is going to be unbearable.
It could even be a hindrance to growth. Many times when a new resident comes to the city, one of the first complaints involves the train, with words unprintable here accompanying the comment. They are driving people insane, and it might even be a hindrance to growth, if people decide they just can't live with that noise every night, morning, afternoon, and so on.
If I didn't know that a solution was possible, I would just resign myself to never having a decent night sleep ever again. However, there is a solution, Saskatoon has found it, and it is high time Yorkton starts working towards one as well. Let's get together with the train companies to start planning ways to lessen the need to get whistles. Updated intersections, a different noise on the train itself - I heard a bell on the trains going through before, it's loud enough to get attention but not loud enough to wake everyone - or even rerouting the tracks. Something, anything, to help us keep our sanity in this fair city.
I admit, there will be costs involved, but this would be an investment in our future. A future where we could get an entire night sleep without a big blast at 2:00 a.m. That's a future we all can enjoy.
