No relief in sight to long waits for drivers at London train crossings

London drivers who curse every time a long train blocks their path at one of the city's many railway crossings can expect little relief in the near future, according to a report going to a city committee next week.

For years, consultants and politicians have hoped that CP and CN could consolidate their operations on one line: CN's main corridor. But the report shows thatthe prospect is "highly unlikely" because of the complexity and cost of rail relocation.

Last year, city councilasked staff to attempt negotiations with the railway giants but according to the city's transportation manager, Edward Soldo, CP said it can't justify the cost of moving its rail line, which is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Railways reject consolidation

The report said thatCP will not contribute to the cost of a feasibility study or any costs associated with a future proposal to relocate.

For its part, CN said that the capacity of its existing corridor in London is already stretched and that it would require an enormous amount of money to upgrade its rail infrastructure. CN also said the relocation would have a detrimental impact on their operations and competitiveness, and the company will not participate in any scoping exercise.

The report points out that the city has no authority to expropriate land owned by a railway company or force a railway to relocate.

Now what?

As a result, the city's best approach for dealing with the impact of long and slow-moving trains is to continue to work around them by building underpasses or overpasses at strategic locations in the city, proposed in the report. City council has already allocated $60 million for an underpass on Adelaide Street north of Central Avenue.

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Coun. Jesse Helmer supports this approach.

"I think we've got to be clear with Londoners about what is and isn't possible and move forward, so we actually solve the problems and don't just stick ourhead in the sand and do nothing."

Helmer saidmoving ahead with the Adelaide Street underpass is the right way to go.

"We are also eventually going to have to deal with the one on Richmond. When we talked about the transit tunnel, there was a lot of opposition, but it's going to remain a problem as long as we have freight rail crossing there."

High speed hope

The report does offer a glimmer of hope that a consolidation of rail lines might be accomplished in the long term by way of high speed rail.

It's recommended the city undertake a study to evaluate a high speed rail corridor through London. The thinking is that if high speed rail were to use the CN line, it would require a widening of the corridor, and this might create the potential to position all train services, including CP and CN, on the same stretch of land.

But Helmer doesn't think it's realistic to consolidate all three services in one corridor.

"It starts to be extremely expensive to be doing that, and very disruptive. And then you have all the freight, the Via service, the high speed rail service all in one corridor, and when corridor is impacted by anything there could be a disaster or any kind of construction activity that's affecting a lot of the rail lines all of those things are impacted and there's no alternative way around."

The report will be discussed by the civic works committee on Monday.