CP Railway ordered to curb noise at Alyth yard

Federal regulators ordered Canadian Pacific Railway to take steps to curb the noise coming from its southeast Calgary Alyth yard.

Residents have long complained about noise and vibrations from the yard that straddles 15A Street, stretching from Blackfoot Trail south to 42nd Avenue S.E.

Complaints intensified in recent years after CPR consolidated locomotive servicing work at the location, doubling the size of the operation that now runs longer hours.

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) released a ruling Friday saying it cannot conduct any load testing or idling operations as of Aug. 15 from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. MT within 400 metres of the repair facility.  

Ed Greenberg with Canadian Pacific says they made some changes at Alyth a year ago, but will comply with the new order.

"We believe we do comply with it, but ... in fairness to the CTA we're going to take a close look at the entire report to make sure that change as well as any other comments the CTA made will be complied with," he said.  

Residents look forward to quieter nights

Now some people who live by the Alyth railyard are looking forward to quieter nights.

Jennifer Bysterveld is thrilled the CTA acted on her complaint.

"It's a start," she said. "It's definitely somewhere we can build from. It will help because a good night's sleep has been one of the things that's definitely been missing around here."

Ald. Gian-Carlo Carra, who has been working with the community and the railway, says it's a huge win for the citizens who have spent huge amounts of time fighting the problem.

"I think it's a pretty good statement for the fact that our democracy works," he said.

But Carra does worry it might push the problem to a different part of the neighbourhood.