An Airdrie resident says he was sick to his stomach after seeing an ambulance stopped because of a moving train on Veterans Blvd last Tuesday (September 19th).

“I was stopped by the train going west on Veterans,” said Tony Gize, “I saw the flashing lights leave the Fire Department in Williamstown and I knew it was an ambulance and I saw it racing up the opposite way on Veterans. Sure enough, he was sitting on the train because as soon as the train was gone, everybody had pulled over and he was racing up Veterans and turned left on Main Street.”

Unfortunately for Gize, he has heard situations like this come up far too often.

“I’ve always heard of people talking about it. I happen to witness it. I don’t know how to say it, it was sickening, it was like I had a void in my stomach. I couldn’t believe that I witnessed what we always talk about.”

Gize said he reached out to the City for answers who told him it was beyond their control as Veterans Blvd is a Provincial road.

The City of Airdrie said that this is one issue they have been pushing the province for along with funding for the proposed underpass on the Yankee Valley Blvd train crossing.

However, both the City and Gize feel they’ve been given the same answers.

“We always blame City Council because we don’t know. We’re always thinking ‘the City doesn’t care, they don’t understand or why aren’t they doing something about this?’ I learned that a lot of times and this is one of those situations with the train, the City has advocated to change these issues but their requests are being ignored by the Province. Nothing happens until something happens. Our government has become reactive instead of proactive.”

We reached out to the Ministry of Transportation who hasn't responded to our request for comment, meanwhile Alberta Health Services sent this reply.

"The train tracks are not a significant cause of ambulance delays.

Part of the reason for this is because EMS accounted for the fact that the train tracks run through the middle of town, and therefore we set up a station on both the east and west sides of the tracks."

While Gize doesn’t want to speculate on whether it would have changed the outcome for where that ambulance was heading, but he can only imagine what if.

“We’re not doctors or medical professionals but if there was a quicker response time because there was nothing to impede emergency services from getting to the scene, would there have been a difference. That’s the question.”

Gize believes that even having an ambulance shelter on the east side of Veterans could help with the response times and shave a few minutes off an emergency.

“If there is a train and we have an emergency over by Cam Clark or in the industrial area, the closest ambulance would have to be dispatched from King’s Heights and you’re still seven minutes away.”

Gize has now joined the City in pushing the Provincial Government to help with funding to upgrade Veterans and change the issue along the tracks.

Both Gize and the City have one simple message to ask the government in their fight.

“Please don’t ignore Airdrie, we have needs. We haven’t even seen our Premier come to Airdrie yet and it would be so great for her to come to Airdrie and see our needs and maybe just understand that Airdrie is a very different city, we’re growing so fast that we have needs and needs that need to be answered very quickly.”

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