Railway rules and regulations only allow Railways to block public crossings for 5 Minutes, after which they should make a break in the train.

If people are upset about this they should phone CN Rail and make a complaint. If you dont, then they will continue to screw you around.

In the case of the BCR site they should have an alternate route to get around the blocked crossing at Rustads... maybe a crossing connecting the road from the autowreckers to the Willow Cale, or maybe at the other end by the old plywood plant and PG saw. Other peoples time costs money as well and the cumulative costs for the businesses out there for something like this would be in the thousands of dollars I would think.

opps PG Sort Yard not PG Saw...

Palopu

I do believe you are right about the length of time a train can block a railway crossing.

And if people don't complain then nothing will ever be done.

When we were working on first aid / WCB requirements in that area the guideline was 20 minutes, not 5. Having said that, this sounds like a breakdown not a planned blockage. Suppose there was a derailment - would all you whiners call because the track was blocked for more than 5 minutes? How about an accident on the highway - do you start yapping when the investigators keep the highway closed? Oh wait, yes you do. Get off your high horse people, sometimes things do not go as planned.

Some people would call it as it is - an accident. In CNs case it is probably poor maintainence.

re: interceptor

It's easy to start rebelling against us if you throw in all sorts of unrelated issues that "may" occur elsewhere yet are NOT related to this incident.

The fact is this train stalled! So there's no reason to start pulling in highway accidents to support your argument.

Obviously this was NOT a planned blockage. But having had a father who was employed by CN Rail for MORE THAN 40 years I asked him about his thoughts on this matter.

He did in fact agree with you interceptor that the limit is 20 minutes and not 5. But he also stated that for a train company who deals specifically with, well... trains, that it is nothing to uncouple the train and pull the cars apart by about 30 - 40 feet to let traffic through.

I understand that we can not always control everything in our lives but things like this happen, and there is indeed an option available (uncoupling the train) then there's no reason why that should not have been done.

Being a national railway company does not permit you to place your level of importance above anyone else’s.

We all have important lives to live.