Stephen Rees's blog

I know that recently I read somewhere about the hopes of preserving the railway heritage of the Arbutus Greenway. It had a lyrical bit about nostalgia for the trains and an old guy painting one of the remaining signals. Of course, I can’t find that now.

I am quite pleased to see that the signals at 12th Avenue were being removed this morning. I do understand the nostalgia for the way railways used to be, but in this case I think it is more important that redundant equipment and signs out to be taken away. I want drivers to treat railway crossings with the respect they deserve. Keeping these signals in place after the tracks were removed simply reduces amount of attention a signal will get by people unfamiliar with the neighbourhood. If they get accustomed to ignoring signals here that might get transferred to other locations where trains operate but infrequently and unpredictably – in other words almost everywhere else in Canada.