rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] "UPX bells a whole new nuisance along tracks" (Reply)

The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr writes about people in the Junction who are disturbed by the late-night noises of the Union-Pearson Express.

When the Union Pearson Express launched last month, it came with plenty of bells and whistles, including onboard Wi-Fi, phone charging outlets, even dapper conductors decked out in retro-chic uniforms. But according to some of the UP Express’s new neighbours, the service is overdoing it with the actual bells.

UP Express trains ring their bells every time they approach or depart a station, and that happens often. The trains run every 15 minutes between 5:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., much more frequently and later than GO or VIA Rail vehicles along the same corridor. With trains going both directions, when the service is operating, UP Express bells sound an average of once every seven and a half minutes around stops, and some people living near the Bloor GO Station say the noise is keeping them up at night.

According to Corrine Humphreys, her basement apartment on Abbott Ave. is so well insulated that “the world could be falling apart” outside and she wouldn’t hear it. “But I hear those damn bells all the time.”

The 39-year-old has lived near the tracks for almost four decades, and said that normally the sound of the passing trains is as soothing to her as ocean waves. But the lateness and frequency of the UP Express bells is too much.

“When I have insomnia it’s really annoying because I’m trying to sleep, then all of a sudden, ‘ding ding ding ding ding!’ and I’m just like, ah darn, there goes another hour of no sleep,” she said.