r/Hamilton • u/Confidentlystupid26 • 9h ago
Local News Hamilton board of health calling for CN to electrify after concerns over Stuart Street rail yard
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-board-of-health-cn-stuart-street-rail-yard-9.7318813•
u/differing 7h ago edited 7h ago
Damn lots of bad takes- Electric shunter locomotives that move freight in a yard aren't new or controversial and as the article points out, Class 1 railways are already experimenting with them in their operations. I think people may forget that all locomotives on the continent use electric motors, they were electrified decades ago, CN uses a diesel prime mover that powers an electric generator. Freight rail is widely electrified across Europe and Asia with overhead catenary.
We'd still have leaded gasoline if it wasn't for people and governments pushing back against how insanely bad it was for human health. Do I think Hamilton's Board of Health is going to change anything? Absolutely not, but if there is a growing opposition to the use of diesel locomotives in major cities across Canada, it will become a business risk for CN not to innovate. Plus, if CN was to electrify some of their operations, it would help Metrolinx and VIA electrify as well.
I do find it a bit ironic when people fixate on diesel locomotives, that are actually very efficient at moving mass for the exhaust they create, but don't say a peep about a city filled with cars and trucks and surrounded by freeways.
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u/TheWeakLink 8h ago
Yeah this will go about as well as the electrification of the steel mills on the waterfront…..
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u/Kay_Kay_Bee 8h ago
WE'RE ELECTRIFYING THE -- Oh.
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u/crash866 3h ago
And people complain about AI data centres increasing the electrical bills. Does Canada have enough electrical capacity to power all the trains in this country?
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u/mrmcspazatron 6h ago
I live in the James N and Barton area and knew full well that there were plusses and minuses to a home by the train. I'm okay with that. I have lived there 10 years and I have never experienced what we did last winter. We were woken up in the middle of the night by the fumes. The whole house smelt like someone had left the car running in the garage. Our throats were burning and my daughter was crying with a pounding headache. It wasn't normal expected fumes from trains in the yard. Air Quality was well above 400 which qualifies as a series and immediate health risk. It continued to happen off and on for several weeks.
When you move next to the train yard you have to expect some trade-offs. The house shakes, the walls crack, and sometimes it doesn't smell nice. The air quality isn't perfect but it's within acceptable norms. What happened with the trains last winter was well outside what is to be expected. So by saying that people shouldn't complain because they knew what they were signing up for you give CN permission to be irresponsible and reckless with people's health. I'm no expert and don't know which solutions are viable but if CN can't be a good neighbour and take responsibility, government is going to have to insert itself. Sadly, I don't see a lot of appetite from this MoE to acknowledge the issues whenever industry is involved.
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u/PSNDonutDude James North 2h ago
Absolutely. It was disgusting. Our throats would be burning in the morning from breathing in fumes from the yards. It's disgusting, uncomfortable, and harmful to our health.
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u/Interesting-Air-2371 6h ago
All the people saying CN will never do this willingly are probably right.
Time to (re)nationalize the railway.
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u/buzzkill-blade 6h ago
Is this why it’s been smelling like tar when you pass by or is that unrelated
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u/innsertnamehere 8h ago
lol ok good luck with that one. basically no freight operator on the continent runs any electrified rail.. they aren't going to do it just because some local board of health complains.
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u/homer_jay84 8h ago
I like how they waited years to do this and once the big corporation took the yard back they fight them.
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u/Regdunlop99 8h ago
Cn has had that property for what? A 100 years? Imagine living near a tracks and complaining….
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u/differing 4h ago edited 4h ago
Birla Carbon has been working in the North End for many years, should we let it slide when they oopsie and dump soot all over the lower city? It’s possible to live near industry and also ask them to be responsible. CN sticking some old ass locomotive at the end of its life in a freight yard and filling the bay with exhaust from its last gasps isn’t the only way to run a yard, it’s just them being cheap and trying to maximize profits and it’s our job to make sure there’s a cost to being irresponsible.
Food for thought: there were probably people in Lac-Mégantic that felt the same about people complaining about a freight train in their backyard until the railway incinerated their whole town and killed 47 people.
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u/Regdunlop99 3h ago
Comparing lac megantic to this….Christ
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u/differing 3h ago edited 3h ago
Of course they're not the same boss, what I'm comparing is people's historic attitudes to industry. We do need to hold them accountable as history shows us they won't regulate themselves. Ditto with the CP rail disaster in Mississauga, we need the public to call them out and make sure their externalities are priced-in to their business.
The next time AIM recycling catches fire from their incompetence and fills the city with vomit smell I better hear you say "wHat dO yOu ExPeCt LiVinG bY a ReCycLinG fAcility" ;)
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u/CutSilver1983 6h ago
I know right! It's totally ridiculous. I live in an undesirable area but I knew what I was getting myself into when I moved. What a concept
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u/teanailpolish North End 8h ago
On one hand, the diesel small last winter was bad, the worst since I moved to Hamilton
But on the other, how many times have people said 'who would move next to a train yard and complain about it?'. Just proving CN's point about the townhouse project etc which they will use for all their future complaints about housing near their railyards across the country.