How to stop idling of diesel train engines on No. 8 Road?

Question

Sound, Air and Potential Riparian Pollution on No. 8 road CN rail

Location:  2000 block of #8 Road

Video evidence:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-my2q0cICjI

Joanne Fisher reports:

"Engines idle far more now in this yard than they ever have 

This past winter, CN introduced weekend idling into this yard, resulting in situations where diesel locomotives were left idling 32 of 48 hours here.

 

Over Christmas, over an approximate 65 hour stretch, they idled for 62 of those hours.

 

CN seems either unable or unwilling to get this problem under control, and it's a deteriorating situation for the environment, residents, and air quality."

 

 

Comments

More Video Evidence (thanks to Joanne) which  shows how CN conducts its operations here in Richmond.

Unecessary engine revving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGkLx2hz2LE  CN trains sit and rev their engines in the middle of the night outside of the yard, nearest to homes. CN issued a bulletin to its employees to curb the practice of stopping and idling its engines at the crossing at #8 Road; now they stop and rev their engines regularly.This video was taken around 3:00am, and CN ignores this practice as well, even though it issued a bulletin to address situations like this.

Excessive use of train whistle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP77-Mxkxsw
Local residents  have been repeatedly subjected to, by the same crew that leaves these same locomotives idling for 16 hours a day, finishing their shift, and leaving them running until they come back to work the next day. The  incident  in the video was repeated over and over again over the course of that single hour.

Train refuelling near sensitive habitat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dP3PJCBFU  right next to a drainage ditch that leads into the Fraser River.


CN is slated to build a new rail line across the south side of Richmond, so these issues may very well soon affect other residents where the new line will be built.

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the North Shore also has a similar problem https://www.railandreason.com

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apr 21 2012: some evidence that CN cameras are not monitoring and/or that no one is supervising the Lulu Island CN yard where engines are still being left idle all night (joannne)

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more pollution and obstruction of road https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyrhFQtr9b8

Answer 1

Joanne wrote a letter to CN on April 2, 1012

Locomotives in this yard continue to be left idling incessantly. It's currently 9 Celsius, well above the temperature when Smartstart used to shut these locomotives off automatically.

One of these locomotives, #4731 as I recall was being left on over a several week period just a short time ago, the heater for the cab was being left on, preventing the engine from shutting down.

It took weeks to figure that one out, and hundred of hours of unnecessary idling, noise, vibration, and air pollution occurred as a result.

We're now into April, and there is no sign of CN's "fuel conservation policy" being observed by crew or monitored by management
.
These locomotives were parked at 9:00pm last night and have now been idling for 16 hours.

There is no effort being made to conserve fuel, reduce emissions, and respect the environment.

"Delivering Responsibly" as claims CN's current advertising, starts right here, in your own rail yards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lajhb42H818

Joanne reports on March 28, 2012:

"after an absolute uphill battle, the locomotives are finally shut off...from past experience, this might only last a very short while.

Our MP's office (Alice Wong) is involved, and this was also reported to Transport Canada.

 

The Canadian Transportation Agency is about to render a formal Decision about rail noise pollution issues for the New Westminster residents."  (This may well have (had) an effect in Richmond)

Comments

Joanne wrote to CN on April 1, 2012:


Locomotive idling in this yard continues on an unprecedented scale.

Locomotives 7055 and 7016 were parked on the shop track 2:00pm last Sunday. Non-stop idling was noted for the next 26 hours.

After constantly bringing the idling problem to CN's attention, these locomotives were finally shutting off according to policy during the week last week.

However, I noted that the second pair of locomotives, lead unit 4731, which were parked further back in the yard, quickly filled this void and took up the all-important task of burning off fuel instead for protracted periods, in temperatures above 5 Celsius.

I decided to leave matters as they were to see if anyone at CN would notice this.

Apparently not.

By Friday, it was time to set the weekend reset button back to zero once again.

Somewhere before 5:00am yesterday morning, CN crews left 4 engines idling a short distance from the public road, 5560, 5561, 7055, 7016.

They then left the yard with all 4 engines idling up by homes, close to the road, and left the yard.

All 4 engines remained idling there for an hour and a half until another crew arrived and moved them an hour and a half later, at 6:25am.

Ina predictable sequence of events, the remaining pair of locomotives, (lead unit 4731) were moved up in the yard onto the shop track.

They've been here since last night, it's currently 7 Celsius, and of course, idling non-stop.

CN, we're now into April. The amount of additional hours of idling, noise and vibration is unprecedented here.

There has been more hours of idling this past fall through to now than what would find in a combined time period of several years together previously.

By not continually bringing this to CN's attention, I believe that many, many more hours of emissions - on top of current increases - would result as this situation is clearly not being monitored.

The case in point is today...don't report unnecessary idling to CN, the net result is that the situation quickly reverts back to fuel conservation policy contraventions, soot wafting out of the yard, and the pervasive, annoying drone of hours and hours - or even a full day or more - of idling locomotives.

As for the current idling situation  involving  locomotive 4731, I seem to recall that we recently went through weeks of non-stop idling from this locomotive as crews were bypassing the Smartstart system by leaving the cab heater on.

Is that why this unit is again running incessantly?

Who is paying for all this extra wasted fuel, besides the environment and residents, through compromised air quality?

Could CN please determine why this locomotive is once again not shutting off - again!