Editor:
Re: Silence heard on train whistles, April 18 letters.
I must say I am at a total loss for words when it comes to the entitlement that some have when it comes to the noise created by the trains on the waterfront.
However, I will cut letter-writer Mike Campbell and others like him some slack, as they are most likely new to the area and don’t realize this once-little town was built as a result of the Great Northern Railway being rerouted to the Semiahmoo Bay shoreline in 1909, long before they moved here. With the ongoing overdevelopment and densification of this town, I am of the opinion that trains passing through this area are one of the last few remembrances of days gone by and are what still gives this area its small-town feel.
I moved here 25 years ago and know people who have lived on the bluff longer who have no problem with the noise. Don’t people check out an area before they move? Are Realtors not disclosing the fact that trains move along the fairly obvious tracks that stretch the waterfront?
Do those people who can afford to move into this area feel so entitled that they can complain enough to actually have the trains rerouted again? Wow.
Perhaps they can get some spare change from those like-minded to chip in and pay for the rerouting themselves, or perhaps even buy the train companies outright. What about that option?
When I moved to South Surrey-White Rock, there were no sidewalks on our street, so the neighbours and I got together to request the city to have them built. They added $480 to our taxes for four years to pay for them. There’s an idea; you want the noise gone, you pay for it with your taxes, not mine.
Oh, and here’s the cheapest solution to the issue of the trains: “Look both ways before crossing.”
David Johnson, Surrey
• • •
Just read Mike Campbell’s letter to the PAN about the whistling trains.
It was particularly awful last Saturday morning at 6:05. This horn time is allowed but it was cruel. People who work all week like to sleep in. No chance with the noise this morning.
I do hope some progress can be made with plans made to lessen noise.
Mary MacDonald, White Rock
