A train crossing in the Railway City has been in disrepair for months. Why isn't it fixed yet?

Andrew Harvey never expected the train crossing he goes through on his daily commute to work in St. Thomas would cause $1,000 worth of damages to the front of his car. 

"These tracks are in disrepair and even if you're going below the speed limit, it still manages to do damage to your vehicle," said Harvey, who's had to replace both lower control arms of his 2020 Kia that were ruined after he drove through the crossing on First Avenue last month. 

"The edges around [the tracks] look like a really big pothole. We've seen a couple cars go by here making a really loud noise, and other cars come to pretty much a complete stop to go over them."

The state of the Canadian National (CN) rail crossing in St. Thomas — known as the Railway City — has drawn the ire of residents who've been calling for it to be repaired for months.

It's also stirred up confusion on whether it's the municipality or the railway company's responsibility to fix. CBC News spoke to multiple residents who said they've contacted both CN and the city and have been given mixed messages about who's in charge of the repair. 

Track maintenance a shared responsibility

Mayor Joe Preston explained the rail crossing's maintenance is a shared responsibility. The city has to keep up roadways surrounding the tracks, while CN maintains everything within the rail line. But he said a lack of cooperation and communication from the rail company has delayed the work despite city officials continuously pushing for action.

Preston said CN's flag people and city staff need to be together so traffic can be rerouted while tracks are being fixed, adding that his staff have sent more than a dozen emails to CN to arrange both parties to get together. 

"We have to cooperate because it's our road and their tracks but it often takes forever for them to get back to us," he said. 

"We need railways to move industrial products out of St. Thomas, but we can't have on our major arterial roads people having to slow down to 15 kilometres an hour in order to go over a railway line."

CN spokesperson Michelle Hannan said in an email that the company "is aware of and remains engaged" about the crossing.  

However, people having to drive over the train tracks on the busy street say they don't care who's responsible, they just want it fixed.

"All I can see is they're passing the buck and the only one that's benefiting out of this is the garages doing the repairs," said Harvey. "They're making a killing out of people that are already struggling to make ends meet."

St. Thomas local Dan McDonald said construction in the area has increased traffic around the tracks. He drove his brand new motorcycle over the tracks a few weeks ago and heard a really loud noise that led him to believe its front was broken.

While it didn't sustain any damages, McDonald has had to find alternative routes getting around the city to avoid the railway crossing, which has significantly increased his travel time, he said. 

"Your vehicle just makes a huge sound and you're bouncing, it's just very rough to go over and it's a 60-kilometre zone so cars are traveling a bit faster too but you'll see cars slam on the brakes. It's gotten that bad," McDonald said.

"I would just like to see somebody go out and start working on it. They've fixed tracks over the years since I've been here, but this is the worst one I've ever seen. It's to the point where I could see somebody slamming on the brakes and getting rear-ended."

Preston echoes their concerns but emphasized that the municipality isn't allowed to make any changes without CN's permission because the company owns the tracks. After further correspondence with CN, he's hopeful work will begin on the tracks next week.