5 railway crossings in Greater Sudbury are considered highest-risk: Transport Canada

Up North5:52Transportation analyst weights in on high risk rail crossings

CBC News has learned Transport Canada does not routinely warn the public about the most dangerous crossing across the country. That information is now public. Ian Naish, a transportation consultant, weighs in on what should happen next.

Five rail crossings in Greater Sudbury appeared on Transport Canada's list of the 500 most dangerous crossings in Canada in 2014.

Four of the five dangerous crossings in Sudbury are in the Valley East area. The other is the crossing at Maley Drive.

CBC News reported earlier this week that Transport Canada does not routinely warn the public about all railway crossings that appear in its database of the country's "highest risk" crossings.

• Transport Canada list of 500 'highest risk' railway crossings not widely shared

The president of an Ottawa consulting firm who has worked for Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board said sharing the information with municipalities would be an important first step.

"It's up to the public, if they're worried, to call their councillors and, you know, talk to the railways," Ian Naish said.

Most municipalities don't have level rail crossing experts, he added.

The list is compiled by an algorithm.

"It's based on traffic information provided by municipalities and by the railways in terms of train volume and traffic volume," Naish continued.

"And that [data] might be outdated in the sense that some of the data is quite old."

Nevertheless, the list is still a good talking point and may get people speaking up about safety at rail crossings, he said.