Township of Langley considers overpass at deadly railway crossing
Transportation Safety Board of Canada officials said they are gathering information on the most recent fatal train collisions in the Township of Langley.
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Calling the latest train collision death a horrible tragedy, Township of Langley councillor Michael Pratt said one of the municipality’s priorities is a Fraser River waterfront redevelopment plan that includes a pedestrian overpass.
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“Obviously it is a major priority for everyone,” Pratt said Friday.
On Thursday, just before 8 a.m., a man died after being hit by a train near Glover Road and Billy Brown Road in Fort Langley, near the area of the riverfront redevelopment. The community in the north of the Township of Langley is a popular area for walkers and has had an increase in housing development in the past several years, but it is also bisected by the heavily used rail corridor.
News reports say the man was well known in the area and his dog was also killed.
It was the second fatal train collision in under a month, and the third in the Township of Langley in just over five months.
On Jan. 8, on the same rail line, but to the east near Derby Hills Park and the 208 Street rail crossing, a pedestrian was hit by a train before 8 p.m. The pedestrian died before first responders could transport them to hospital.
On Aug. 19, 2025, at about 10:15 p.m., a person died after being hit by a train on a different rail line, south of the most recent fatality, near Crush Crescent and Glover Road.
There was another fatal train accident in the City of Langley, which is adjacent to the Township of Langley, in 2024.
Pratt noted that the road-level crossing in Fort Langley — where the most recent fatality took place — has everything you would normally expect, such as an arm that blocks traffic when trains are approaching, warning bells and whistles, and raised sidewalks.
“But we can discuss with staff and see if there’s anything else that we can do to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen,” he said.
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Pratt added that some work has started on the waterfront redevelopment plan with renovations underway on a historic house to turn it into a community amenity. He said the township is hoping to advance the rest of the project as quickly as possible.
A preliminary price tag for the pedestrian overpass is $11 to $12 million, said township officials.
Asked if there were larger safety issues to be considered with the other rail fatalities in the past year, Pratt said as people move into an area they have to get used to new surrounding and new circumstances. He said a lot of education goes into driver and pedestrian safety concerning rail crossings.
Both CN and CPKC have rail lines that run through the Township of Langley.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada officials said they are gathering information on the most recent fatal train collisions in the Township of Langley.
In a written response, Liam MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board, said that information is being collected as part of a Class 5 investigation. Those are not comprehensive investigations and no public report is produced, although Class 5 occurrences are recorded for possible future safety analysis or statistical reporting, said MacDonald.
The 2024 fatal train incident in the City of Langley, on May 22, took place about 4:30 p.m. on 204th Street and Duncan Way. The RCMP said the CN train crew saw a man on the tracks. The crew sounded their bells and whistles but the man remained unresponsive, and the train was brought to an emergency stop.
City of Langley Mayor Nathan Pachal said street-level rail crossings are a concern, and that the key to increasing safety is to build more overpasses. However, those are expensive and the municipality can’t do that on its own.
Pachal said he’d also like rail companies step up and improve fencing and other ways to make it more challenging for people to get onto rail lines in urban areas, particularly where there are people who are homelessness or have mental health problems.
