e-1224 (Rail transportation)

Petition to the Minister of Transport

• Across Canada, people’s movements are constrained by railways in inhabited areas. The lack of safe crossings is a major barrier to residents’ mobility, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.
• The rail companies, such as Canadian Pacific (CP) and Canadian National (CN), can block the construction of safe crossings;
• In Montreal, CP has repeatedly refused to allow the crossings proposed by the City of Montreal. The City of Montreal entered into mediation with the Canadian Transportation Agency, but this effort failed;
• CN also makes moving between different neighbourhoods complicated, especially in Pointe St. Charles, where overpasses are too few and unsafe to promote active transportation; and
• In Toronto, in British Columbia and elsewhere in the country, accessibility is seriously limited by railways and a lack of safe crossings for cyclists and pedestrians. For example, the closure of a bridge over the Kicking Horse River is hurting the local whitewater rafting industry.