Railway refuses to assist in funding Hazel Avenue underpass

It’s taken two years for Canadian National Railways to let the Municipality of Jasper know it will not help fund a pedestrian underpass at the train crossing at Hazel Avenue.

The idea for an underpass was first raised in response to concerns from Transport Canada in October 2005, when council applied for funding from the Jasper/Banff Infrastructure Grant in 2006 and began working towards a conceptual design to gain support from CNR for the project.

The municipality repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to communicate with the company about financial support for the project, according to Mayor Richard Ireland. At the regular council meeting on Nov. 18 there was discussion about introducing the Canadian Transportation Committee to force an answer from CNR on the topic. 

Since this meeting, CNR announced it will not help fund the project, according to spokesperson Kevin Franchuk.

“I’ve spoken with the mayor, today (Nov. 21), actually,” Franchuk said. “There is funding protocol for all great separation projects, they look at who was there first to determine who’s the senior and who’s the junior party. These are protocols that are in place and used anywhere there is a rail and road crossing. CN is the senior party in Jasper as our line was built first and the road then came later. It is therefore the responsibility of the junior party, in this case the municipality, to fund new great separation projects.”

Franchuk explained that CNR had been cooperating with the work thus far and was happy to continue working with the town on the project. But not financially, because the issue is “first and foremost a pedestrian traffic flow matter and it’s not up to the railway to manage that traffic. We did not create this issue,” said the CNR spokesman. “If pedestrian traffic increased on Hazel Avenue it is up to the municipality to find a solution to best manage that traffic flow. It does not benefit the railway, so we should not bare any part of the cost.”

Ireland said though he wasn’t surprised by the response, he was disappointed. “We always prefer to work in partnership and collaboration with other people and it would’ve been better, we think, in this circumstance,” he said. “But, they’ve made the decision that they’ve made and they are a fairly significant player in the community.”

Looking forward, Ireland is glad to have been given a response as it means the municipality can move on with the underpass project. “One of the things we needed was simply a response, a yes or a no,” he said. “A yes would have been better but at least a no lets us move it to the next level. And that’s what we’ll do.”