Whitehorse eyes fix for derelict train tracks cited as safety hazard

A Whitehorse city councillor says it's time, after decades of waiting for trains to return to the Yukon capital, to do something about rail crossings on downtown streets.

Coun. Dan Boyd says he's gotten complaints from cyclists and others about the tracks that cross 4th Avenue near Robert Service Way.

"I'd want to be very careful crossing that with a motorbike or bicycle or even a small vehicle," he said.

Mobility advocate Darryl Tait, who uses a wheelchair, said the crossing is a hazard. He said wheelchair users effectively have to pop a wheelie to get over the rails. 

"Falling into the crack at any kind of momentum could cause you to grab the front caster wheel and they'll just like eject out of the front of your chair," he said.

The tracks are part of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, which hasn't run revenue service into downtown Whitehorse since the early 1980s.

Despite occasional rumblings that the railway might try to restart service, Boyd said there's no point waiting any longer, especially because tracks south of downtown were buried by repeated mudslides on the clay cliffs. City crews removed those tracks during the mudslide cleanup.

Boyd said city crews have already done some work to patch up the 4th Avenue crossing, but called for a permanent fix. The tracks also intersect 2nd Avenue, but there's no crosswalk there.

"The long term solution I think is just to put the road through properly and deal with the right of way of the railroad tracks later, if it comes to be that for some reason the train is going to run into downtown Whitehorse again sometime in the future," Boyd said.

A spokesperson for White Pass and Yukon Route declined to comment.